Behavioral sleep problems and their potential impact on developing executive function in children

Bedtime resistance and night waking are common sleep problems throughout childhood, especially in the early years. These sleep problems may lead to difficulties in neurobehavioral functioning, but most research into childhood sleep problems has not emphasized the importance of the developmental context in which disruptions in neurobehavioral and daytime functioning occur. We review the development of sleep as well as executive functioning (EF) in childhood and suggest that EF may be particularly vulnerable to the effects of these common childhood sleep problems because of its prolonged course of maturation. Behavioral problems associated with common sleep problems suggest poor self-regulation in the context of sleep loss, and developing EF skills play important roles in self-regulation. A research agenda that considers a developmental approach to sleep and sleep problems in the context of childhood EF performance is outlined to promote future research in this area

Where Does the Time Go: Smartphone Use Among Immigrant Mothers Born in the English-Speaking Caribbean

This ethnographic study investigates the ways in which smartphone use shape the daily routines of seven mothers who immigrated to Montreal from the English-speaking Caribbean. Using a combination of empirical data collection through a use-tracking app installed on participants’ smartphones and open-ended interviews, the paper argues that the pervasive use of smartphones in these mothers’ routines creates conflict with children while simultaneously providing mothers with a valuable outlet for socialization, identity creation and the maintenance of community ties. Evidence found in this study also suggests that media literacy is a relevant concern for women belonging to this population. One of the roles of a “good” mother is media gatekeeper, and while most of the participants in this study subscribe to this belief, most of them also have very little working knowledge about the media landscape in which they inhabit, and in some cases very little ability to decode the meaning and function of basic media products. For these reasons, media literacy among this population emerged as both an area of inquiry and a possible area of further study or outreach

Affective Strategies For The Containment and Commodification of Motherhood Or, Towards a Theory of Affective Expertise

This thesis proposes a theory of “affective expertise,” for understanding the affective maneuvers and strategies employed by influencers, and momfluencers specifically, as they work to earn income through their online personas. The basis of this form of expertise is located in the contradictions that momfluencers (and other influencers) must negotiate as they seek to commodify their private lives through the production of content for sharing platforms. To be forthright in the commodification of family life would represent a breach of social norms. One of the fundamental challenges that momfluencers (and other influencers) face, this thesis argues, is to make the selling of their images appear like spontaneous acts of self-expression rather than considered strategies meant to generate income. Affective expertise is the set of skills that content creators develop and rely upon to thread the needle between commerce and “authenticity.” The subjects of this study belong to the broader creator economy, a precarious workforce that has emerged from the affordances of algorithmic sharing platforms including Instagram and TikTok. This study demonstrates how the working conditions experienced by creators operating under algorithmic managers are the backdrop for both the accumulation and deployment of affective expertise. The work of Deleuze, Hart and Negri, Duffy, and McRobbie lay the theoretical groundwork for the analysis of these labour conditions. Further, this study situates affective expertise within the broader context of biopolitical societies of control as defined by Foucault, Hardt and Negri, and Rabinow and Rose. Affective expertise can be understood as both an outcome of biopolitical subjectivity, and, ultimately, an attempt to recuperate agency within a matrix of constraints oriented around the reproduction of certain forms of life. This study situates affective expertise as a form of lay expertise that functions outside any formal structures of credential or training. Although this expertise is deployed in the service of an audience, and can be measured in part by an audience’s engagement with those who deploy it, I argue for its theorization as expertise rather than as entertainment or spectacle. Rather, affective expertise is an intricate negotiation between the competing and overlapping exigencies of biopolitical control, algorithmic managers, corporate or brand interests, and the imagined preferences of audiences

Changing the Habitat at Academic Conferences: Using a Learning Ecosystem with Active Learning During a Panel Presentation

Abstract In order to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of an active learning event during a panel presentation at an academic conference, Mercer University librarians presenting at the Georgia Libraries Conference switched the traditional way panel presentations are modeled. Instead of the question and answer session following a brief overview of the presentation, we moved our physical position in the room, closer to the participants in order to have a more intimate conversation with attendees. Using two active learning techniques, discussion and brainstorming, the presenters started a conversation with attendees about project ideas involving teaching faculty members, librarians, and students and how this type of learning ecosystem would work or already works at their institutions. Though each librarian in the discussion and brainstorming session varied in approach and their types of projects, the model of the ecosystem remained consistent. Our team of librarians then proceeded to test whether or not an active learning event could take place during our presentation