To see in a mirror dimly: An ecology of ritual transmission

I examine ritual transmission through three practices: Sacred Harp hymnody, Montessori Sunday School, and Celtic thin place, all practices meant to provide the participant with a tangible sense of transcendence. Ritual transmission in not linear exchange, but is instead a complex system involving pedagogy, praxis, and persuasion: an ecology. Ritual ecology provides a way to think about rituals as both preserving practices and as consistently evolving. The composition of a ritual – that which makes it possible to transmit – requires the development of technical praxis. Ritual praxis is a blend of procedural and exegetical knowledge; it is the link between the actions/words of the ritual and its theory: the significance and symbolic meaning behind the actions and words. To teach a ritual to a new participant, and ultimately to fold that new participant into the community that practices the ritual, requires negotiation with an environment that contains signs and symbols. The individual must read and incorporate these signs and symbols into his or her exegetical knowledge. Transmission is not exclusively the province of live community, but happens also through web technology. Technology is taken up into this ritual ecology, shifting and expanding the mechanisms of transmission and fundamentally changing how participants imagine and construct the “face of God”-type moments

Separation anxiety disorder in toddlers

The present study examined differences in families with a child with no symptoms of separation anxiety, subclinical separation anxiety (1-2 symptoms), and Separation Anxiety Disorder (3 or more symptoms). Specifically, an initial attempt was made to identify variables that may contribute to the development of Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD) in toddlers. Parents of 60 toddlers were administered the SAD portion of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule to determine if their child met the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for SAD. Thirty percent of parents had children with no SAD, 43% had children with subclinical separation anxiety, and 27% of parents had children who met criteria for SAD. Parents completed the Family Environment Scale, the Conners\u27 Parent Rating Scale, and the Social Support Questionnaire-Short Form. Teachers of each child also completed the Conners\u27 Teacher Rating Scale. Results indicated that children with SAD displayed significantly more internalizing behaviors than children with subclinical SAD and children with subclinical SAD displayed significantly higher levels of internalizing behaviors than children without SAD. In general, families of a child with SAD reported higher levels of cohesion than families with a child without SAD, though differences were not significant. Additionally, families of children with SAD did not differ significantly from families of children without SAD with respect to levels of independence, conflict, and number of social supports. Results are discussed with respect to implications for etiology and treatment of SAD in toddlers

Infographics: The New 5-Paragraph Essay

The STEM Career Infographic Project (SCIP) was a 5-week exploratory project deployed in an 8th grade classroom at Mountain Vista Middle School (MVMS) in the spring of 2014. Students were required to research a STEM career in-depth, then report on their careers using infographics, in lieu of a standard 5- paragraph essay. SCIP was broken down into 9 days of instruction: introduction, research, three days of design lecture, three work days, and a final presentation day. The students were in the lab working on their infographics every day. We observed that infographics were better suited than traditional essays in areas that involved creativity and visual appeal, limited writing for ESL (English as a Second Language) students, fostering and appealing to student’s interests, and overall student enjoyment. Some of the negative obstacles we encountered revolved around limitations of free and online software, addressing the learning curve of technology, and altering student’s expectations of reporting tools. Overall, we considered SCIP a success because of the positive affect we recognized in the students through the duration of the project

Inter-married families: hybridising teaching-for-two-languages and parenting in regional Australia

Children learn language through engaging in a rich language environment. However, some parents make a decision to rear their children bilingually/plurilingually, in a context where the community around them does not use the home language (HL). For some families only one of the parents speaks HL, thus they are in a position of combining their parenting role with an additional one of language teaching. Such role combinations involve emotionally demanding work, which takes place invisibly in the home. Parents develop a hybrid role combining elements of teaching with the relationship and care work expected of them as parents, moving between roles as context requires. In this paper we explore four in-depth case studies of families where one parent is the speaker of a HL different from that spoken by the other parent and the community. We explore their perceptions of the impact of hybridising teaching and parenting roles. The HL speaking parents talked of the cost of their multiple roles, and the challenges of being the HL speaker in terms of stress and tiredness. Their inability, in their eyes, to fulfil both roles (teacher and parent) perfectly led to their feelings of inadequacy and failure which can then impact on their parenting and family life

Supporting children through transitions in early childhood education in England: perspectives of educational psychologists and school staff

This study explored the perspectives of school staff and educational psychologists (EPs) regarding two normative, vertical transitions that take place within the early years of children’s education in England: the transition from nursery to Reception (YR); and the transition from YR to Year One (Y1). A wealth of international literature (e.g. Shields, 2009; Boyle et al., 2018) has explored the important issue of children’s transition to compulsory schooling (YR in England), the success of which can have long-term implications for children’s development (e.g. Hugo et al., 2018; Margetts, 2009). Furthermore, in England research has shown that the subsequent transition to more formal learning in Y1 can be challenging (e.g. Sanders et al., 2005; White & Sharp, 2007). Three focus groups were conducted with sixteen members of school staff in one school and semi-structured interviews were carried out with six EPs to provide a timely update to existing research and to address gaps in the literature.Participant’s views towards both of these transitions were sought, with a particular focus on: emotional factors; neighbourhood and community influences; how to support children with additional needs; and the past, present and future role of EPs. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Five main themes were identified for staff: ‘supporting social and emotional wellbeing’; ‘the jump up to Year One’; ‘caring about partnerships with parents’; ‘our hands are tied’; and ‘targeted support for additional needs’. Five main themes were constructed for EPs: ‘starting school is key’; ‘Year One: a highly significant transition’; ‘anxiety’; ‘collaborative approaches to support’; and ‘an evolving role for EPs over time’. The findings are discussed and a range of implications for EPs working in early years settings and schools are described

Family Moves and the Future of Public Education

State laws compel school-aged children to attend school while fully funding only public schools. Especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, this arrangement is under attack — from some for unconstitutionally coercing families to expose their children to non-neutral values to which they object and from others for ignoring the developmental needs of students, particularly students of color and in poverty whom public schools have long underserved. This Article argues that fully subsidized public education is constitutional as long as public schools fulfill their mission to model and commit people to liberal democratic values of tolerance and respect for all persons as equal choosers. To be sure, those values are not neutral. But as Brown v. Board famously concluded, their promotion in public schools is perhaps the nation’s and states’ single most compelling interest, because it is essential to the ability of people with diverse beliefs to live together harmoniously while preserving their vast freedoms in other respects. To keep public education from qualifying those freedoms any more than necessary, states give families a right to opt for private education, but at their own expense. This arrangement serves the compelling interest in public education, however, only if public schools — bolstered by compulsory education laws and their uniquely full public subsidization — attract enough families. For well over a century, public schools have attracted around 90% of all school children. Today, however, family moves away from public education are eroding its ability to attract children due principally to public education’s conflation of “public” with bureaucratically “uniform” education — precluding pedagogically, democratically, and equitably essential differentiation among students. The Article proposes ways public schools can better model liberal democratic values by engaging all families in the cooperative and differentiated direction of their children’s learning

Drawing: Its Use as a Communicative Aid with Aphasic and Normal Adults

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