Luzes e sombras no ensino de educação (multi)cultural: Reflexões de um estudo de caso de os EUA

El presente estudio cualitativo busca discutir los principales resultados encontrados en un estudio sobre la enseñanza de la educación multicultural en una universidad del Medio oeste de los Estados Unidos, en donde el contexto racial/étnico es predominantemente blanco y en donde el profesor de la cátedra constituye una minoría racial/étnica, religiosa, y sexual. En los Estados Unidos, la educación multicultural es una de las principales aproximaciones para entender la diversidad y promover la equidad y la justicia social en ambientes educativos (Banks, 2004; Newby, Swift y Newby, 1996). Específicamente en educación superior, varias publicaciones desde los EEUU se han focalizado principalmente en la raza/etnia, género y en políticas para promover la educación multicultural en los futuros profesores; sin embargo, evidencias empíricas sobre los desafíos que presenta la enseñanza de este tópico en educación superior y desde la perspectiva de una minoría es altamente escasa. A través de observaciones y entrevistas desarrolladas durante un semestre académico a un profesor que se identifica como Afroamericano biracial, fue posible establecer lo siguiente: (1) la importancia del estatus de minoría del profesor cuando se enseña a estudiantes que constituyen una mayoría; (2) la lucha simbólica en el aula; (3) el efecto en el ambiente de clases de la enseñanza de contenidos con alta carga emocional; y (4) el efecto de las características físicas de la sala de clases. Asimismo, políticas institucionales que promuevan y apoyen la diversidad resultan primordiales en el desarrollo de un ambiente educativo que trabaje en pro de la multiculturalidadThis qualitative study aims to discuss the main findings in a study on the teaching of multicultural education at a university in the Midwest of the United States, where the racial / ethnic context is predominantly white and where the teacher of the class is a racial and ethnic, religious, and a sexual minority. In the United States, multicultural education is one of the main approaches to understand diversity and promote equity and social justice in educational settings (Banks, 2004; Newby, Swift, & Newby, 1996). Specifically, in higher education, various publications from the country have focused mainly on race / ethnicity, gender and multicultural policies to promote education in future teachers. However, empirical evidence about the challenges of teaching this topic in higher education from the perspective of a minority is not available. Through observations and interviews carried out during an academic semester to a biracial professor, it was possible to establish: (1) the importance of the minority social status of the professor while teaching students of the majority; (2) the symbolic struggle in the classroom; (3) the effect on the classroom community of the high emotional content; and (4) the effect on the classroom community of the physical environment. Also, institutional policies that promote and support diversity are crucial in the development of an educational environment that works towards multiculturalismEste estudo qualitativo tem por objetivo discutir os principais resultados encontrados em um estudo sobre o ensino da educação multicultural em uma universidade no Meio-Oeste dos Estados Unidos, onde o fundo racial / étnica é predominantemente branca e onde o professor da cadeira é minorias raciais / étnicas, religiosas e sexuais. Nos Estados Unidos, a educação multicultural é uma das principais abordagens para a compreensão da diversidade e promover a equidade e justiça social em contextos educativos (Banks, 2004; Newby, Swift e Newby, 1996). Especificamente no ensino superior, várias publicações de os EUA têm-se centrado principalmente na raça / etnia, gênero e políticas multiculturais para promover a educação nos futuros professores; no entanto, a evidência empírica sobre os desafios da docência do ensino superior este tema a partir da perspetiva de uma minoria é altamente limitado. Através de observações e entrevistas realizadas durante um semestre a um professor que se identifica como Africano americano biracial, foi possível estabelecer o seguinte: (1) a importância do status de minoria quando o professor ensina os alunos que constituem a maioria; (2) a luta simbólica na sala de aula; (3) o efeito sobre o meio ambiente das aulas de ensino com alto conteúdo emocional; e (4) o efeito de as características físicas da sala de aula. Além disso, as políticas institucionais que promovem e apoiam a diversidade são primordiais no desenvolvimento de um ambiente educacional que trabalhar no sentido de multiculturalism

Destination Scheduling for Secure Pinhole-Based Power-Line Communication

We propose an optimal destination scheduling scheme to improve the physical layer security (PLS) of a power-line communication (PLC) based Internet-of-Things system in the presence of an eavesdropper. We consider a pinhole (PH) architecture for a multi-node PLC network to capture the keyhole effect in PLC. The transmitter-to-PH link is shared between the destinations and an eavesdropper which correlates all end-to-end links. The individual channel gains are assumed to follow independent log-normal statistics. Furthermore, the additive impulsive noise at each node is modeled by an independent Bernoulli-Gaussian process. Exact computable expressions for the average secrecy capacity (ASC) and the probability of intercept (POI) performance over many different networks are derived. Approximate closed-form expressions for the asymptotic ASC and POI are also provided. We find that the asymptotic ASC saturates to a constant level as transmit power increases. We observe that the PH has an adverse effect on the ASC. Although the shared link affects the ASC, it has no effect on the POI. We show that by artificially controlling the impulsive to background noise power ratio and its arrival rate at the receivers, the secrecy performance can be improved

Family and higher education: developing a comprehensive framework of parents’ support and expectations of first-generation students

Postsecondary institutions must help all students develop knowledge and skills to persist. Traditional approaches to first-generation students (FGS) have focused on describing the hindrances they experience during their undergraduate trajectories, defying their persistence. This qualitative study explores the experiences of FGS parents; specifically, the characteristics of their support and expectations toward FGS. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 25 FGS parents from diverse Chilean universities. The data collected were analyzed through an inductive process, which included describing, classifying, and interpreting data into categories and themes. The results show that the motivation of families lies in the symbolism that they ascribe to higher education, deploying various modes of family support and resources to ensure that students complete their studies and attain a degree. This process is tailored to meet the initial expectations of FGS performance at university, which typically frame the type of support the family may provide. Postsecondary institutions and policymakers can use this study to develop future policies and practices that include FGS parents’ perspective, expectations and characteristics of support, articulating these with academic culture, FGS’s trajectories and own expectations to reduce inequality and promote retention

The Landscape of Advanced Coursework Participation: Understanding Disparities and Intersectionality

This population-based study explored students\u27 participation in advanced coursework in elementary schools (gifted/talented programs), middle schools (Algebra I+), and high schools (Advanced Placement) to address enrollment equity. The study identified demographic disparities and the intersectionality of multiple identities to achieve two research aims: 1) to explore how advanced course-taking varies by student demographics, and 2) to understand how disparities in advanced course-taking vary by student demographics and intersectional identities. The findings indicate that disparities in advanced course-taking are related to students’ race, ethnicity, disability status, English learner (EL) status, socioeconomic status, as well as the intersection of these variables. The report includes implications for policies and practices that consider complex school system variables that affect advanced course enrollment. This report is part of the Equitable Access and Support for Advanced Coursework (EASAC) study by the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium. Interpretations of findings as well as implications and recommendations have been drafted in partnership with PK-12 leaders and educators. To access an interactive version of the data in this report, including additional details about demographic comparisons for each academic year, please see our MERC data dashboard that accompanies this report

Structural anatomical investigation of long-term memory deficit in behavioural frontotemporal dementia

Although a growing body of work has shown that behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) could present with severe amnesia in approximately half of cases, memory assessment is currently the clinical standard to distinguish bvFTD from Alzheimer's disease (AD). Thus, the concept of "relatively preserved episodic memory" in bvFTD remains the basis of its clinical distinction from AD and a criterion for bvFTD's diagnosis. This view is supported by the idea that bvFTD is not characterized by genuine amnesia and hippocampal degeneration, by contrast to AD. In this multicenter study, we aimed to investigate the neural correlates of memory performance in bvFTD as assessed by the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT). Imaging explorations followed a two-step procedure, first relying on a visual rating of atrophy of 35 bvFTD and 34ADpatients' MRI, contrasted with 29 controls; and then using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) in a subset of bvFTD patients. Results showed that 43% of bvFTD patients presented with a genuine amnesia. Data-driven analysis on visual rating data showed that, in bvFTD, memory recall & storage performances were significantly predicted by atrophy in rostral prefrontal and hippocampal/perihippocampal regions, similar to mild AD. VBM results in bvFTD (p(FWE)<0.05) showed similar prefrontal and hippocampal regions in addition to striatal and lateral temporal involvement. Our findingsDistALZ CONICET CONICYT/FONDECYT 1170010 1160940 FONCyT, PICT 2012-0412 2012-1309 CONICYT/FONDAP 15150012 INECO Foundatio

Experiências de professores no trabalho com alunos imigrantes: desafios para a realização de salas de aula inclusivas

In the last decades, the predominant scenario in Latin America has consisted of intraregional migrations, which have impacted educational systems and, especially, teachers. This qualitative-phenomenological study aims to investigate processes experienced by teachers, who teach immigrant students in the region of Valparaíso, Chile. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to learn about the experiences of 10 teachers from one rural and one urban school, which are characterized for having diverse students. Despite the important territorial and cultural differences between schools, findings reveal similarities in the way the teachers face diversity, which is developed individually and intuitively and does not permeate all areas within the school.En las últimas décadas, un escenario predominante en América Latina ha consistido en migraciones intrarregionales, las que han impactado a los sistemas educativos y, especialmente, a los profesores. El presente artículo cualitativo-fenomenológico buscó conocer los desafíos educativos y pedagógicos actuales que presentan maestros chilenos que imparten clases a estudiantes inmigrantes; para ello, se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a 10 docentes de una escuela rural y otra urbana, las cuales se destacan por presentar altos índices de vulnerabilidad y alta diversidad estudiantil. A pesar de las importantes diferencias territoriales y culturales de las instituciones, los resultados muestran grandes similitudes en torno al manejo de la diversidad por parte de los docentes, la cual es construida de manera individual e intuitiva y no permea todos los ámbitos al interior de la escuela.Nas últimas décadas, um cenário predominante na América Latina consistiu em migrações intrarregionais, as quais impactaram os sistemas educacionais e, principalmente, a os professores. O presente artigo qualitativo-fenomenológico buscou conhecer os desafios educacionais e pedagógicos atuais apresentados por professores chilenos que ministram aulas para alunos imigrantes; para isso, foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas para 10 professores de uma escola rural e outra urbana, que se destacam por apresentar altos índices de vulnerabilidade e alta diversidade estudantil. Apesar das importantes diferenças territoriais e culturais das instituições, os resultados mostram grandes semelhanças em torno da gestão da diversidade pelos professores, a qual é construída de forma individual e intuitiva e não permeia todas as áreas dentro da escola

Optimal detection of burst events in gravitational wave interferometric observatories

We consider the problem of detecting a burst signal of unknown shape. We introduce a statistic which generalizes the excess power statistic proposed by Flanagan and Hughes and extended by Anderson et al. The statistic we propose is shown to be optimal for arbitrary noise spectral characteristic, under the two hypotheses that the noise is Gaussian, and that the prior for the signal is uniform. The statistic derivation is based on the assumption that a signal affects only affects N samples in the data stream, but that no other information is a priori available, and that the value of the signal at each sample can be arbitrary. We show that the proposed statistic can be implemented combining standard time-series analysis tools which can be efficiently implemented, and the resulting computational cost is still compatible with an on-line analysis of interferometric data. We generalize this version of an excess power statistic to the multiple detector case, also including the effect of correlated noise. We give full details about the implementation of the algorithm, both for the single and the multiple detector case, and we discuss exact and approximate forms, depending on the specific characteristics of the noise and on the assumed length of the burst event. As a example, we show what would be the sensitivity of the network of interferometers to a delta-function burst.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures in 3 groups. Submitted for publication to Phys.Rev.D. A Mathematica notebook is available at http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/~avicere/nda/burst/Burst.nb which allows to reproduce the numerical results of the pape