“The path of social justice”: A Human Rights History of Social Justice Education

Although not often recognized, social justice education in the U.S. is historically and philosophically tied to the twentieth century\u27s human rights initiatives. The efforts of human rights pioneers, such as those who authored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, have indelibly shaped social justice efforts, including within education, in the U.S. Reframing social justice education in light of human rights gives clarity to and concretizes our work as social justice educators: It strengthens a vision of education as central to promoting rights and justice; it refocuses attention on a broader array of fundamental rights, and it explicitly contests our globalized and neoliberal context, a context heavily influencing educational reform

Spectacular Things Happen Along the Way: Lessons from an Urban Classroom by Brian D. Schultz

Recently a student, Sara, approached me and said, “This spring I am graduating. I am sorry I didn’t take any of your classes, but I am told that you will not hold that against me; and [you will] be helpful. I am going to Chicago with my boyfriend after graduation. He has a job in the city, so we want to live in the city; therefore, I will need to get a job with the Chicago Public Schools. What do you recommend that I read so that I will become a good teacher?” I gave her my copy of Brian’s book--the one he autographed for me--and told her that it would be insightful and illuminating, and said to her, “You can do it, this author did it; hang in there and enjoy.” I also said, “It is a rare book, and you may keep it if you promise to read it several times and send me an email to let me know how you are doing.” (May 15, 2008) The definitions of a rare book on the web include these: “When few copies of a book are known to exist, it is called rare”; and/or it may also refer to “Unusual, old books that are considered valuable due to unique qualities.” While I am not interested in having an argument with those who provide computer information for the web, it is, nonetheless, necessary to offer another definition of a rare book that I think deserves to be included: “A rare book is one that includes valuable content or narrative not frequently found in other books of the same genre.” I make this argument because much of the writing about urban Black life by scholars and popular press reporters for most of the twentieth century portrays African American children and families as pathologically and culturally deficient. It was the rare book of the twentieth century, such as those by Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison and a few others, that depicted African Americans “in terms of living tissue and texture of daily consciousness” (Ellison, 1947, p.12) and did not adhere to the “motive of expediency” that Wright (1993, p. 12) described. Although writing about American novelists, Ralph Ellison’s statement in his introduction to Invisible Man (1947) has much to offer educators doing work in urban areas. He commented that, “I felt that one of the ever-present challenges facing the American novelist was that of endowing his inarticulate characters, scenes and social processes with eloquence. For it is by such attempts that he fulfills his social responsibility as an American artist” (p. xx). I contend that the rich, textured descriptions of African Americans, found in fiction and nonfiction books, are often included in the syllabus of some high school and college literature classes. However, education texts, by and large, unfortunately lack an informed insight into the varied, distinctive, wealth, and complex pattern of Black life

In Praise of Diversity: A Resource Book for Multicultural Education

The unique diversity of our cultural heritage and background is slowly but surely being recognized as a valuable asset for our country, one to be cherished and shared. But the very richness and diversity of our heritage make it difficult for the classroom teacher or the college professor to acquire an understanding of the many groups who have contributed so much to the development of our nation

Embedding effective depression care: using theory for primary care organisational and systems change

Background: depression and related disorders represent a significant part of general practitioners (GPs) daily work. Implementing the evidence about what works for depression care into routine practice presents a challenge for researchers and service designers. The emerging consensus is that the transfer of efficacious interventions into routine practice is strongly linked to how well the interventions are based upon theory and take into account the contextual factors of the setting into which they are to be transferred. We set out to develop a conceptual framework to guide change and the implementation of best practice depression care in the primary care setting.Methods: we used a mixed method, observational approach to gather data about routine depression care in a range of primary care settings via: audit of electronic health records; observation of routine clinical care; and structured, facilitated whole of organisation meetings. Audit data were summarised using simple descriptive statistics. Observational data were collected using field notes. Organisational meetings were audio taped and transcribed. All the data sets were grouped, by organisation, and considered as a whole case. Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) was identified as an analytical theory to guide the conceptual framework development.Results: five privately owned primary care organisations (general practices) and one community health centre took part over the course of 18 months. We successfully developed a conceptual framework for implementing an effective model of depression care based on the four constructs of NPT: coherence, which proposes that depression work requires the conceptualisation of boundaries of who is depressed and who is not depressed and techniques for dealing with diffuseness; cognitive participation, which proposes that depression work requires engagement with a shared set of techniques that deal with depression as a health problem; collective action, which proposes that agreement is reached about how care is organised; and reflexive monitoring, which proposes that depression work requires agreement about how depression work will be monitored at the patient and practice level. We describe how these constructs can be used to guide the design and implementation of effective depression care in a way that can take account of contextual differences.Conclusions: ideas about what is required for an effective model and system of depression care in primary care need to be accompanied by theoretically informed frameworks that consider how these can be implemented. The conceptual framework we have presented can be used to guide organisational and system change to develop common language around each construct between policy makers, service users, professionals, and researchers. This shared understanding across groups is fundamental to the effective implementation of change in primary care for depressio

Radar sounder evidence of thick, porous sediments in Meridiani Planum and implications for ice‐filled deposits on Mars

Meridiani Planum is one of the most intensely studied regions on Mars, yet little is known about the physical properties of the deposits below those examined by the Opportunity rover. We report the detection of subsurface echoes within the Meridiani Planum deposits from data obtained by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument. The delay time between the surface and subsurface returns is indicative of materials with a real dielectric constant of 3.6 ± 0.6. The real dielectric constant is strongly modulated by bulk density. Newly derived compaction relationships for Mars indicate that the relatively low dielectric constant of the Meridiani Planum deposits is consistent with a thick layer of ice‐free, porous, basaltic sand. The unique physiographic and hydrologic setting of Meridiani Planum may have provided an ideal sediment trap for eolian sands. The relatively low gravity and the cold, dry climate that has dominated Mars for billions of years may have allowed thick eolian sand deposits to remain porous and only weakly indurated. Minimally compacted sedimentary deposits may offer a possible explanation for other nonpolar region units with low apparent bulk dielectric constants

Zinc Deficiency and Fertilization.

5 p

The evolutionary origin of avian facial bristles and the likely role of rictal bristles in feeding ecology

Facial bristles are one of the least described feather types and have not yet been systematically studied across phylogenetically diverse avian species. Consequently, little is known about their form, function and evolutionary history. Here we address this knowledge gap by characterising the evolution of facial bristles for the first time. We especially focus on rictal bristle presence and their associations with foraging behaviour, diet and habitat preferences in 1022 avian species, representing 91 families in 29 orders. Results reveal that upper rictal, lower rictal and interramal bristles were likely to be present in the most recent common ancestor of this avian phylogeny, whereas narial bristles were likely to be absent. Rictal bristle presence, length and shape varied both within and between avian orders, families and genera. Rictal bristles were gained or lost multiple times throughout evolution, which suggest that the different morphologies observed within species might not be homologous. Phylogenetic relatedness is also not likely to be the only driver of rictal bristle presence and morphology. Rictal bristle presence and length were associated with species-specific ecological traits, especially nocturnality. Our findings suggest that species foraging in low-light conditions are likely to have longer rictal bristles, and that rictal bristles are likely to have evolved in early birds

Exome-wide association study of pancreatic cancer risk

We conducted a case-control exome-wide association study to discover germline variants in coding regions that affect risk for pancreatic cancer, combining data from 5 studies. We analyzed exome and genome sequencing data from 437 patients with pancreatic cancer (cases) and 1922 individuals not known to have cancer (controls). In the primary analysis, BRCA2 had the strongest enrichment for rare inactivating variants (17/437 cases vs 3/1922 controls) (P=3.27x10(-6); exome-wide statistical significance threshold P<2.5x10(-6)). Cases had more rare inactivating variants in DNA repair genes than controls, even after excluding 13 genes known to predispose to pancreatic cancer (adjusted odds ratio, 1.35, P=.045). At the suggestive threshold (P<.001), 6 genes were enriched for rare damaging variants (UHMK1, AP1G2, DNTA, CHST6, FGFR3, and EPHA1) and 7 genes had associations with pancreatic cancer risk, based on the sequence-kernel association test. We confirmed variants in BRCA2 as the most common high-penetrant genetic factor associated with pancreatic cancer and we also identified candidate pancreatic cancer genes. Large collaborations and novel approaches are needed to overcome the genetic heterogeneity of pancreatic cancer predisposition

Identifying and Correcting Iron Deficiency in Field Crops.

2 p