Re-imagining Teacher Leadership: An Autoethnographic Inquiry

Leadership has been given deliberate prominence in education in the quest to activate educational capacity and improve educational performance within schools (Hargreaves & Ainscow, 2015). Expectations for the teaching profession as a whole, and in particular teacher leadership, are central to the hopes of “improving school outcomes, improving the educational attainment of students, and replacing conceptualizations of leadership” (Torrance & Humes, 2015, p. 792). In spite of the positive rhetoric regarding teacher leadership, it has not been successful in achieving these aims, especially on a wider scale (Barth, 2013; Coggins & McGovern, 2014). Re-imagining teacher leadership raises the question of what teacher leadership is, why it has not been deemed successful, and what spaces exist for teachers to lead within. The author’s experiences are situated through self-narrative writing and compared to existing literature on teacher leadership, raising questions as to why existing educational landscapes might remain inhospitable to the legitimacy of teacher leadership. While micro-events are the focus of this research, their relationship to macro-structures indicates the need for re-imagining the spaces where teachers can lead within school systems. This autoethnographic inquiry illustrates how reflection on career events and teacher leadership experiences can enrich the description of educational leadership and the role educators can take in fostering leadership.

Curriculum Weaving: Developing Creative Curricular Opportunities for Pre-Service Teachers and Elementary Students through Project-Based Learning

Curriculum Weaving uses multi-layered goal planning designed to activate the students\u27 prior knowledge, connect the student to student competencies and encourage them to engage in professionally-based, project management activities that will cultivate effective professional in the field classroom teacher. The focus of weaving these elements together through a project based event fosters a shift to a more holistic and contextualized perspective of the learner. In our model of Curriculum Weaving, we see this process as one that describes the uniting of daily theoretical requirements, student lived experiences, and intangible skill sets into a larger perspective of learning as represented by holistic thinking. The following article describes the Curriculum Weaving Model as it was applied to a children’s book author visit

Influences of the home environment upon intellectual giftedness in young children

Several factors contribute to the development of intelligence in an individual. Historically, theories concerning the source of human intelligence have ranged from the notion that heredity is the only determinant of intelligence to the concept that positive environmental influences play a major role in the development of the human mind (Clark, 1988; Feldhusen, 1989a; Grinder, 1990; Sternberg & Davidson, 1986)

Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth: outcomes at age 21

The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (Midwest Study) is a longitudinal study that has been following a sample of young people from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois as they transition out of foster care into adulthood. It is a collaborative effort involving Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago; the University of Wisconsin Survey Center; and the public child welfare agencies in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. This report concentrates on the outcomes of 21 year old youth as they age out of the child welfare system and transition to adulthood

The future of human nature: a symposium on the promises and challenges of the revolutions in genomics and computer science, April 10, 11, and 12, 2003

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, a publication series that began publishing in 2006 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. This was the Center's Symposium on the Promises and Challenges of the Revolutions in Genomics and Computer Science took place during April 10, 11, and 12, 2003. Co-organized by Charles DeLisi and Kenneth Lewes; sponsored by Boston University, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.This conference focused on scientific and technological advances in genetics, computer science, and their convergence during the next 35 to 250 years. In particular, it focused on directed evolution, the futures it allows, the shape of society in those futures, and the robustness of human nature against technological change at the level of individuals, groups, and societies. It is taken as a premise that biotechnology and computer science will mature and will reinforce one another. During the period of interest, human cloning, germ-line genetic engineering, and an array of reproductive technologies will become feasible and safe. Early in this period, we can reasonably expect the processing power of a laptop computer to exceed the collective processing power of every human brain on the planet; later in the period human/machine interfaces will begin to emerge. Whether such technologies will take hold is not known. But if they do, human evolution is likely to proceed at a greatly accelerated rate; human nature as we know it may change markedly, if it does not disappear altogether, and new intelligent species may well be created

The future of human nature: a symposium on the promises and challenges of the revolutions in genomics and computer science, April 10, 11, and 12, 2003

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, a publication series that began publishing in 2006 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. This was the Center's Symposium on the Promises and Challenges of the Revolutions in Genomics and Computer Science took place during April 10, 11, and 12, 2003. Co-organized by Charles DeLisi and Kenneth Lewes; sponsored by Boston University, the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.This conference focused on scientific and technological advances in genetics, computer science, and their convergence during the next 35 to 250 years. In particular, it focused on directed evolution, the futures it allows, the shape of society in those futures, and the robustness of human nature against technological change at the level of individuals, groups, and societies. It is taken as a premise that biotechnology and computer science will mature and will reinforce one another. During the period of interest, human cloning, germ-line genetic engineering, and an array of reproductive technologies will become feasible and safe. Early in this period, we can reasonably expect the processing power of a laptop computer to exceed the collective processing power of every human brain on the planet; later in the period human/machine interfaces will begin to emerge. Whether such technologies will take hold is not known. But if they do, human evolution is likely to proceed at a greatly accelerated rate; human nature as we know it may change markedly, if it does not disappear altogether, and new intelligent species may well be created

TigerPlace: An Innovative Educational and Research Environment

This item also falls under AAAI copyright. For more information, please visit http://www.aaai.org/ojs/index.php/aimagazine/indexA one of a kind project based on the concept of aging in place is in progress at the University of Missouri (MU). This project required legislation in 1999 and 2001 to be fully realized. A specialized home health agency was developed by the MU Sinclair School of Nursing specifically to help older adults age in place. In 2004, TigerPlace, a specially designed independent living environment, was built by Americare Corporation of Sikeston, Missouri, a leading long-term care company. TigerPlace was developed as a true partnership between the University of Missouri and Americare Corporation. This partnership allows for unique student and research projects.This research was supported by the U.S. Administration on Aging grant #90AM3013 and National Science Foundation ITR grants IIS-0428420 and IIS-0703692

On the effect of heterovalent substitutions in ruthenocuprates

We discuss the properties of superconducting derivatives of the RuSr2GdCu2O8 (1212-type) ruthenocuprate, for which heterovalent doping has been achieved through partial substitution of Cu ions into the RuO2 planes (Ru1-xSr2GdCu2+xO8-d, 0<x<0.75, Tcmax=72 K for x=0.3-0.4) and Ce ions into the Gd sites (RuSr2Gd1-yCeyCu2O8, 0<y<0.1). The measurements of XANES, thermopower, and magnetization under external pressure reveal an underdoped character of all compounds. Muon spin rotation experiments indicate the presence of magnetic order at low temperatures (Tm=14-2 K for x=0.1-0.4). Properties of these two series lead us to the qualitative phase diagram for differently doped 1212-type ruthenocuprates. The difference in temperature of magnetic ordering found for superconducting and non-superconducting RuSr2GdCu2O8 is discussed in the context of the properties of substituted compounds. The high pressure oxygen conditions required for synthesis of Ru1-xSr2RECu2+xO8-d, have been extended to synthesis of a Ru1-xSr2Eu2-yCeyCu2+xO10-d series. The Cu->Ru doping achieved in these phases is found to decrease the temperature for magnetic ordering as well the volume fraction of the magnetic phase.Comment: Proceedings of the 3rd Polish-US Workshop on Magnetism and Superconductivity of Advanced Materials, July 14-19, 2002, Ladek Zdroj (Poland) to appear in Physica

Galaxy Zoo Supernovae

This paper presents the first results from a new citizen science project: Galaxy Zoo Supernovae. This proof of concept project uses members of the public to identify supernova candidates from the latest generation of wide-field imaging transient surveys. We describe the Galaxy Zoo Supernovae operations and scoring model, and demonstrate the effectiveness of this novel method using imaging data and transients from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). We examine the results collected over the period April-July 2010, during which nearly 14,000 supernova candidates from PTF were classified by more than 2,500 individuals within a few hours of data collection. We compare the transients selected by the citizen scientists to those identified by experienced PTF scanners, and find the agreement to be remarkable - Galaxy Zoo Supernovae performs comparably to the PTF scanners, and identified as transients 93% of the ~130 spectroscopically confirmed SNe that PTF located during the trial period (with no false positive identifications). Further analysis shows that only a small fraction of the lowest signal-to-noise SN detections (r > 19.5) are given low scores: Galaxy Zoo Supernovae correctly identifies all SNe with > 8{\sigma} detections in the PTF imaging data. The Galaxy Zoo Supernovae project has direct applicability to future transient searches such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, by both rapidly identifying candidate transient events, and via the training and improvement of existing machine classifier algorithms.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, accepted MNRA

Alcohol use disorders and the course of depressive and anxiety disorders

BACKGROUND: Inconsistent findings have been reported on the role of comorbid alcohol use disorders as risk factors for a persistent course of depressive and anxiety disorders. AIMS: To determine whether the course of depressive and/or anxiety disorders is conditional on the type (abuse or dependence) or severity of comorbid alcohol use disorders. METHOD: In a large sample of participants with current depression and/or anxiety (n = 1369) we examined whether the presence and severity of DSM-IV alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence predicted the 2-year course of depressive and/or anxiety disorders. RESULTS: The persistence of depressive and/or anxiety disorders at the 2-year follow-up was significantly higher in those with remitted or current alcohol dependence (persistence 62% and 67% respectively), but not in those with remitted or current alcohol abuse (persistence 51% and 46% respectively), compared with no lifetime alcohol use disorder (persistence 53%). Severe (meeting six or seven diagnostic criteria) but not moderate (meeting three to five criteria) current dependence was a significant predictor as 95% of those in the former group still had a depressive and/or anxiety disorder at follow-up. This association remained significant after adjustment for severity of depression and anxiety, psychosocial factors and treatment factors. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol dependence, especially severe current dependence, is a risk factor for an unfavourable course of depressive and/or anxiety disorders, whereas alcohol abuse is not