An exploration of high achieving Black Caribbean young people’s racialised experiences of their secondary school education

The narrative around the educational outcomes of Black Caribbean students in the UK often revolves around low achievement and experiences of school exclusion. This study aimed to explore the secondary school experiences of high achieving students from a Black Caribbean heritage who attended their entire educational career in the UK, as the voices of this group have rarely been represented in research. It also aims to identify participants' educational aspirations and their perception of the support needed to achieve them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather participants' views. A participatory element was introduced in order to ensure that the interview questions were relevant to the educational experience of this group. The interviews’ transcripts were analysed using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. A Critical Race Theoretical lens was also applied to the data, examining ways in which race and racism shaped the educational experiences of participants. In addition, this study was situated within a social constructionist paradigm. It assumes that the school experiences of Black Caribbean pupils are impacted by socially constructed narratives, which have been enacted with a socio-political agenda. Adopting this paradigm aimed at identifying ways in which these constructs operate for the marginalisation of Black Caribbean students within the UK Educational System. Results demonstrated that participants' experiences of secondary school were significantly impacted by systemic racism. This included teachers’ low expectations despite the strong academic ability of this group of participants. Factors intensifying and minimising participants’ racialised experiences were identified. These findings help to challenge notions of academic inferiority of Black Caribbean students due to the high academic ability of this group of participants. Tentative recommendations for Educational Psychology practice are presented and directions for future research are suggested

Provably Correct Control-Flow Graphs from Java Programs with Exceptions

We present an algorithm to extract flow graphs from Java bytecode, focusing on exceptional control flows. We prove its correctness, meaning that the behaviour of the extracted control-flow graph is an over-approximation of the behaviour of the original program. Thus any safety property that holds for the extracted control-flow graph also holds for the original program. This makes control-flow graphs suitable for performing different static analyses. For precision and efficiency, the extraction is performed in two phases. In the first phase the program is transformed into a BIR program, where BIR is a stack-less intermediate representation of Java bytecode; in the second phase the control-flow graph is extracted from the BIR representation. To prove the correctness of the two-phase extraction, we also define a direct extraction algorithm, whose correctness can be proven immediately. Then we show that the behaviour of the control-flow graph extracted via the intermediate representation is an over-approximation of the behaviour of the directly extracted graphs, and thus of the original program

Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Adolescents’ Future Time Perspective

O desenvolvimento de perspectivas temporais de futuro (PTF) na adolescência tem sido associado a comportamentos adaptativos em contexto escolar. Contudo, persiste a necessidade de compreensão de como essas PTF são construídas. Neste trabalho, apresentamos dois estudos sobre a PTF, destacando a sua ligação com a experiência presente. Os participantes foram adolescentes com idades entre 14 e 18 anos. No primeiro estudo (N = 551), analisamos a estrutura fatorial de um questionário construído para avaliar a PTF em contexto escolar. Identificamos uma associação significativa entre desempenho académico e PTF. No segundo estudo (N = 11), através de uma análise, fundada na Grounded Theory, de dados qualitativos decorrentes de entrevistas, verificamos que os adolescentes se preocupam com o seu futuro, referindo-se predominantemente a dimensões relacionadas com a carreira. Tais resultados apontam ainda para a influência que diferentes agentes educativos e a participação em múltiplas atividades têm no seu pensamento prospetivo.El desarrollo de perspectivas de futuro (PTF) en la adolescencia se asocia con varias conductas adaptativas en contexto escolar. Sin embargo, sigue existiendo la necesidad de comprender cómo se construyen estas PTF. En este trabajo se presentan dos estudios sobre la PTF, destacando su conexión con la experiencia presente. Los participantes fueron adolescentes de 14 hasta 18 años. En el primer estudio, se analiza la estructura factorial de los resultados de un cuestionario diseñado para evaluar la PTF en contexto escolar. Fue encontrada además una asociación significativa entre PTF y el rendimiento académico. En el segundo estudio, a través de un análisis basado en la Grounded Theory a datos cualitativos obtenidos de entrevistas, se encontró que los adolescentes se preocupan por su futuro, refiriéndose predominantemente a dimensiones relacionadas con la carrera. Estos resultados también apuntan hacia la influencia de los diferentes agentes educativos y de participación en múltiples actividades en su visión de futuro.Developing perspectives concerning the future in adolescence has been associated with several adaptive behaviors in school context. However, a need to understand how these prospects are build remains. In this paper, two studies on adolescents’ future time perspective (FTP) are presented, highlighting its connection to the present experience. Participants were adolescents, aged 14 to 18. In the first study (N = 551), it is analyzed the factorial structure of a questionnaire designed to assess FTP in school context. A significant association of academic performance with FTP was found. In the second study (N = 11), through an analysis, based on Grounded Theory, to qualitative data derived from interviews, it was found that adolescents think considerably about their future, despite showing to be predominantly focused on career related dimensions. The influence on prospective thinking of both educational agents of the participation in multiple activities was also identified

Taking a stand: regaining power by purchasing controversial brands

People want to escape theaversive state of powerlessness,asitmakes them feel out of control and induces negative effects. One waythrough which peopleresolvethe absenceof personal control iscompensatory consumption. This work theorizes that powerless individuals will consume more controversial brands because theyare perceived by those individuals as powerful. Byconducting anexperimental study, in whichbrand controversy was manipulated via twoscenarios, no evidence was foundtosupportthemainhypothesis.Unexpectedly, it was found that controversial brands are perceived as less powerful by powerless individuals than by powerful individuals