The impact of rural contexts on citizenship education

Social studies teachers are sensitive to local school and community values and, therefore, tactful when making decisions about their curriculum (Romanowski, 1996; Shaver, Davis, & Helburn, 1980; Thornton, 1989), including its citizenship aims (Saada, 2013; Sondel, 2015; Vinson, 1998). For this reason, scholars call for better contextual understandings of teachers\u27 curricular-instructional gatekeeping (Thornton, 1989; Vinson, 1998). Rural-specific examples of this phenomenon remain largely unexamined (Martin & Chiodo, 2007; Pattison-Meek, 2012), though rural schools make up 32.9% of all schools in the United States (Johnson, Showalter, Klein, & Lester, 2014) and rural communities offer distinct socio-geographic and socio-cultural contexts (Brown & Schafft, 2011). To address this research deficit, the current study sampled five government teachers in rural schools to examine their conceptualizations of citizenship education, perceptions of place, and the influences that affect their curricular-instructional gatekeeping. This study adopted a social constructionist perspective to explore the values and meanings participants placed on citizenship within their rural contexts. It utilized a grounded theory research design to sample government teachers from four distant-rural schools and collect data from three sources: interviews, classroom observations, and teaching artifacts. A constant comparison method of data analysis produced a theory to describe citizenship education in rural contexts. The theory consists of three themes that emerged from the data: (1) citizenship education as practical knowledge; (2) place-based learning for future (dis)placements; and (3) the gatekeeping triad. Descriptions of these themes and their relationships with one another illuminate the practices of citizenship education in rural areas and provide knowledge of the rural conditions that influence it. Findings suggest government teachers in rural areas need to become more critical of their treatment of place and citizenship to encourage place-conscious civic life

Teachers’ Perspectives on Global Citizenship Education in Central Appalachia

This paper reports on a sequential mixed-methods (quan à QUAL) study that explored rural Appalachian teachers' perspectives and pedagogical decisions about Global Citizenship Education (GCE). In phase one, a questionnaire was completed by social studies teachers (n=19) from remote and distant rural high schools located in Central Appalachia across two states. Closed-ended items were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Open-ended items were coded to elicit themes that helped to answer the research questions. In phase two, two participants from the original sample were interviewed to uncover their experiences navigating GCE in their unique community contexts. Findings suggest social studies teachers in rural Appalachia, while not using the exact terminology of global citizenship, support multiple types of global citizenship aims. They tend to perceive their communities as homogenous, isolated, and conservative, which presented both challenges to and stimuli for teaching global curricula. Participants tend to perceive much of their global curricula as contrarian in their communities and, therefore, relied on professional tact and community-based knowledge as rural natives to inform their pedagogical decisions

Learning to Be Rural: Lessons about Being Rural in Teacher Education Programs

This qualitative study investigated the evolving perceptions of rurality of five Appalachian native, first-year teachers as influenced by their teacher preparation program. Findings suggested tensions between participants’ rural upbringings and programmatic and non-rural peer conceptions of rurality that surfaced during their program of study. Responses to these tensions included participants positioning themselves as “rural representatives” in their courses and, in some cases, the adoption of revised conceptions of rurality. Intra-Appalachian diversity, such as different childhood community types and childhood social class, influenced participants’ conceptualizations of rurality and their perceptions of its representation in their programs. The majority of participants perceived a trend toward generalized notions of rural place that were not necessarily representative of their personal experiences. Transitioning to first-year teachers, participants relied on their community-driven knowledge and teacher preparation to guide their practice in home or new rural, Appalachian communitie

Applying Deweyan Principles to Global Citizenship Education in a Rural Context

Abstract Global citizenship education (GCE) helps students conceptualize citizenship beyond national boundaries so they are capable of action in dealing with global issues like human rights and environmental sustainability. However, very little literature exists to assist rural teachers in implementing GCE as they face specific challenges due to the context of their schools. This paper identifies challenges rural educators encounter, such as conservative communities and geographic isolation, and details a Deweyan approach to GCE as a means to overcome these challenges. Specifically, we apply Dewey’s democratic and social learning theories to reconceptualize GCE around student, family, and community life to foster a more relevant curriculum that utilizes students’ experiences (Dewey, 1897, 1902, 1938, 1916/2008). It emphasizes the utmost respect for local customs and culture by using them as sources of content for the curriculum while simultaneously extending citizenship thoughts and actions to the global arena.

Familial hypercholesterolaemia in children and adolescents from 48 countries: a cross-sectional study

Background: Approximately 450 000 children are born with familial hypercholesterolaemia worldwide every year, yet only 2·1% of adults with familial hypercholesterolaemia were diagnosed before age 18 years via current diagnostic approaches, which are derived from observations in adults. We aimed to characterise children and adolescents with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia (HeFH) and understand current approaches to the identification and management of familial hypercholesterolaemia to inform future public health strategies. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, we assessed children and adolescents younger than 18 years with a clinical or genetic diagnosis of HeFH at the time of entry into the Familial Hypercholesterolaemia Studies Collaboration (FHSC) registry between Oct 1, 2015, and Jan 31, 2021. Data in the registry were collected from 55 regional or national registries in 48 countries. Diagnoses relying on self-reported history of familial hypercholesterolaemia and suspected secondary hypercholesterolaemia were excluded from the registry; people with untreated LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) of at least 13·0 mmol/L were excluded from this study. Data were assessed overall and by WHO region, World Bank country income status, age, diagnostic criteria, and index-case status. The main outcome of this study was to assess current identification and management of children and adolescents with familial hypercholesterolaemia. Findings: Of 63 093 individuals in the FHSC registry, 11 848 (18·8%) were children or adolescents younger than 18 years with HeFH and were included in this study; 5756 (50·2%) of 11 476 included individuals were female and 5720 (49·8%) were male. Sex data were missing for 372 (3·1%) of 11 848 individuals. Median age at registry entry was 9·6 years (IQR 5·8-13·2). 10 099 (89·9%) of 11 235 included individuals had a final genetically confirmed diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia and 1136 (10·1%) had a clinical diagnosis. Genetically confirmed diagnosis data or clinical diagnosis data were missing for 613 (5·2%) of 11 848 individuals. Genetic diagnosis was more common in children and adolescents from high-income countries (9427 [92·4%] of 10 202) than in children and adolescents from non-high-income countries (199 [48·0%] of 415). 3414 (31·6%) of 10 804 children or adolescents were index cases. Familial-hypercholesterolaemia-related physical signs, cardiovascular risk factors, and cardiovascular disease were uncommon, but were more common in non-high-income countries. 7557 (72·4%) of 10 428 included children or adolescents were not taking lipid-lowering medication (LLM) and had a median LDL-C of 5·00 mmol/L (IQR 4·05-6·08). Compared with genetic diagnosis, the use of unadapted clinical criteria intended for use in adults and reliant on more extreme phenotypes could result in 50-75% of children and adolescents with familial hypercholesterolaemia not being identified. Interpretation: Clinical characteristics observed in adults with familial hypercholesterolaemia are uncommon in children and adolescents with familial hypercholesterolaemia, hence detection in this age group relies on measurement of LDL-C and genetic confirmation. Where genetic testing is unavailable, increased availability and use of LDL-C measurements in the first few years of life could help reduce the current gap between prevalence and detection, enabling increased use of combination LLM to reach recommended LDL-C targets early in life

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

International audienceSpinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far