They’re lovin’it: how preschool children mediated their funds of knowledge into dramatic play

The funds of knowledge framework promotes connecting community contexts with curriculum aimed to activate children’s prior knowledge. Typically, teachers determine what knowledge sources harmonise best with their existing programming, potentially omitting particular resources that may not align. Young children, on the other hand, can act as agents when integrating knowledge for themselves into play. This article explores how children mediated their cultural knowledge into dramatic play and what factors were key to empowering children to naturally incorporate funds of knowledge across contexts. Grounded in critical sociocultural theory, findings reveal that children use mediation as a form of power and agency to act as experts in their learning experiences and interactions with others. Early childhood educators must design a classroom space that is consistent and promotes social interactions, establish relationships with and amongst children, support the co-construction of new understandings of the world, and recognise and honour all sources of knowledge

Conceptualizing Culture How Preservice Teachers in the Rural Midwest Confront Subjectivities

This qualitative study examined how elementary and secondary preservice teachers in the rural Midwest conceptualize “culture” and how preservice teachers’ subjectivities and conceptions of culture shape their pedagogical practices. Thirty-six preservice teachers participated in a course on effective planning designed to address topics such as special education, English language learners, race, those living in difficult circumstances, and gender representation. Results reveal that despite exposure to reflections and discussions on privilege and hegemony to confront biases and deficit perspectives, ethnocentrism persisted

Transforming teacher-family relationships: Shifting roles and perceptions of home visits through the Funds of Knowledge approach

Education has embraced the idea of an ‘asset approach’ to working with families and children, creating a focus on developing collaborative relationships with families by building on what they bring to the table. In this paper we explore what happened when early childhood teachers entered homes to learn from families and identify their Funds of Knowledge. The findings show how issues of power and perception surfaced when teachers attempted to shift their role from that of teacher to learner. In analyzing teachers’ experience before, during, and after ethnographic home visits we saw their general desire to adopt an asset-based mentality. However, the hegemonic structure of schooling, previous experiences, and traditional teachers’ roles shaped their experience with the Funds of Knowledge framework. We end by discussing the implications for teachers and teacher educators who are interested in using home visits to develop an asset approach to their work with families

The power of improvisational teaching

In this study we examine how improvisation can facilitate understanding how teachers respond to children\u27s multiple resources, interests, experiences, and skills in early childhood programs. Improvisation is conceptualized as a responsive, partnered activity through which teachers and children generate meaning and knowledge together. In our analysis we show improvisation is taken up differently in two classrooms and how it variably provides opportunities for learning. Two cases from a professional development program designed to support culturally and developmentally appropriate early mathematics are used to demonstrate the possibilities improvisation creates in era of increasing standardization of curriculum

Examining Culturally Responsive Understandings within an Undergraduate Teacher Education Program

This article examines how a group of elementary and secondary preservice teachers engaged in understanding “culture” and culturally responsive teaching while enrolled in an early program course. We analyze how culturally-related experiences, emotions, and perspectives contribute to the overall understanding of cultural competency training in teacher education. Preservice teachers varied in their use of individual- and structural-orientations, in isolation and in combination, as they developed and progressed as socially just teachers. These findings reveal that despite attempts to develop and shift toward asset-based perspectives, far more culturally embedded coursework and practicum experiences are necessary. This paper includes a reflection on the effectiveness of posing meaningful, reflective questions for preservice teachers as they experienced the concept of “culture” based on their own funds of knowledge

IL-6 production in ovarian carcinoma is associated with histiotype and biological characteristics of the tumour and influences local immunity

The presence of interleukin (IL)-6 in peritoneal carcinomatous fluid (PCF) and its effect on immune cells composition in PCF in patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma was studied. In 21 out of 30 ovarian carcinoma patients, PCF IL-6 levels were found to exceed those seen in PCFs of patients with gastrointestinal cancer. IL-6 activity was higher in serous/mucinous than in endometrioid and undifferentiated ovarian carcinoma PCF (P = 0.05). Ovarian carcinoma PCF IL-6 activities were correlated with serum C-reactive protein levels (r = 0.65, P = 0.0000, n = 25). Ovarian carcinoma PCF leucocyte profile differed from that in blood with respect to: (i) lower percentage of NK and CD8+and (ii) higher percentage of B and CD45RO+, CD14+and HLA-DR+cells. The proportions of CD45RO+in blood were correlated with IL-6 levels in PCF. Corresponding to PCF ovarian carcinoma tumours were stained for the presence of Ki-67 antigen and p53. The highest proportions of Ki-67+cells and cells showing accumulation of p53 were seen in undifferentiated tumours. A low grade of p53 staining was seen in tumours associated with high IL-6 levels in PCF. It was evident that IL-6 production (i) depended on the histiotype of the tumour, (ii) influenced the local immune system in favour of accumulation of B, and T memory cells, and (iii) was higher in patients lacking p53 accumulation. © 2000 CancerResearch Campaig

Imagining a Future in PreK: How Professional Identity Shapes Notions of Early Mathematics

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110548/1/aeq12086.pd

Imagining a Future in PreK: How Professional Identity Shapes Notions of Early Mathematics

This article describes how early childhood teachers engaged in a public preK professional development program. We examine how developing teacher identities mediated engagement with the discourses of developmentally appropriate practice, early mathematics, and funds of knowledge and how they connected present practice to an imagined future. We found that helping them to connect practice experience and new mathematical content knowledge through play allowed them to envision a meaningful place for math with young children

ICOS gene polymorphisms in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the Polish population

There is strong evidence that altered immunological function entails an increased risk of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). The main mechanism of an anti-tumor response depends on T-cell activation. Unlike the constitutively expressed CD28, inducible costimulatory molecule (ICOS) is expressed on the T-cell surface after activation. ICOS enhances all the basic T-cell responses to a foreign antigen, namely proliferation, secretion of lymphokines, the upregulation of molecules that mediate cell-cell interaction, and effective help for antibody secretion by B cells. ICOS is essential for both efficient interaction between T and B cells and normal antibody responses to T cell-dependent antigens. It does not upregulate the production of interleukin-2, but superinduces the synthesis of interleukin-10. Our previous results indicated the ICOS gene has a role as a susceptibility locus to B-CLL. Therefore an extended study was undertaken to evaluate the association between four ICOS polymorphisms (which were recently described as functional ones) and susceptibility to B-CLL in the Polish population. A case-control study of 296 individuals, including 146 B-CLL patients, was conducted on four polymorphisms in the ICOS gene. Genotyping of the polymorphisms ICOS ISV1+173T>C (rs10932029), ICOSc.1624C>T (rs10932037), ICOSc.2373G>C (rs4675379), and ICOSc.602A>C (rs10183087) was carried out using allelic discrimination methods with the TaqMan® SNP Genotyping Assay. There were no statistically significant differences in the allele, genotype, or haplotype distributions between B-CLL patients and healthy controls for any of the investigated polymorphic markers in the ICOS gene. However, we noted that patients carrying genotype ICOS ISV1+173T>C [TT], ICOSc.602A>C [AA], ICOSc.1624C>T [CC], and ICOSc.2373G>C [GG] have a decreased frequency of progression to a higher Rai stage during 60-month follow-up (21.35% vs. 40.8%, p = 0.013) compared to other individuals. This indicates that the investigated polymorphisms do not modulate the risk of B-CLL in the Polish population, but are associated with disease dynamics, in particular with the time to Rai stage progression. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011; Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 49–54