Resettlement Struggles of Burmese Refugee Students in U.S. High Schools: A Qualitative Study

This article presents findings from a qualitative study that examined how five Burmese refugee students adjusted and navigated two public school high schools in a Midwestern urban city in the U.S. The purpose of the study was to capture their unique histories and migration stories from which they drew strength as they resettled in the U.S. The present study focused specifically on the barriers faced by them in achieving high school graduation and impediments to higher education. Important findings included lack of navigational capital, linguicism and the intense shame of being a multilingual learner, birth order, and poor health. Other factors that negatively impacted their educational journeys included feelings of isolation and segregation from mainstream students, as well as lack of information about available resources. Theoretical frameworks of Critical Race Theory and Postcolonial Theory were used to guide the analysis of data and presentation of case studies. Data was collected using in-depth interviews, classroom observations, and home visits to facilitate a greater understanding of their education journeys

Perceptions of linguistically responsive teaching in teacher candidates/novice teachers

This qualitative study examined data from 36 teacher candidates and novice teachers to explore their perceptions and understandings of linguistic responsiveness. The findings illustrate the challenge of demonstrating linguistically responsive teaching practices in the early and initial stages of entering the teaching profession, and more research is necessary to understand how to support teachers. Includes supplemental materials

“Push it Real Good!” The Challenge of Disrupting Dominant Discourses Regarding Race in Teacher Education

Despite efforts to redesign an urban teacher education program for social justice and equity, faculty became aware of racialized issues Teacher Candidates of Color faced in the program. Therefore, this study examined the perspectives of teacher candidates to learn about how race is impacting teaching and learning for pre-service teachers. Overall, we discovered the dominant narratives, often called majoritarian stories (Love, 2004), were extremely difficult to disrupt and essentially remained largely intact for teacher candidates in our program. In addition, we found that majoritarian stories helped to maintain a level of superficiality for teacher candidates regarding issues of race. For this reason, we argue that there is a need to “Push it real good!” using Critical Whiteness to engage in deeper level work with teacher candidates in order to help develop strong teacher activists with the skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary to substantially disrupt the inequitable status quo in education

“Push it Real Good!” The Challenge of Disrupting Dominant Discourses Regarding Race in Teacher Education

Despite efforts to redesign an urban teacher education program for social justice and equity, faculty became aware of racialized issues Teacher Candidates of Color faced in the program. Therefore, this study examined the perspectives of teacher candidates to learn about how race is impacting teaching and learning for pre-service teachers. Overall, we discovered the dominant narratives, often called majoritarian stories (Love, 2004), were extremely difficult to disrupt and essentially remained largely intact for teacher candidates in our program. In addition, we found that majoritarian stories helped to maintain a level of superficiality for teacher candidates regarding issues of race. For this reason, we argue that there is a need to “Push it real good!” using Critical Whiteness to engage in deeper level work with teacher candidates in order to help develop strong teacher activists with the skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary to substantially disrupt the inequitable status quo in education

“What is Critical Whiteness Doing in OUR Nice Field like Critical Race Theory?” Applying CRT and CWS to Understand the White Imaginations of White Teacher Candidates

Critical Race Theory (CRT) revolutionized how we investigate race in education. Centralizing counter stories from people of color becomes essential for decentralizing white normative discourse—a process we refer to as realities within the Black imagination .Yet, few studies examine how whites respond to centering the Black imagination, especially since their white imagination goes unrecognized. We propose utilizing Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) to support CRT to aid in deconstructing the dimensions of white imaginations. Our findings describe how the white imagination operates inside the minds of white teacher candidates, namely through their (a) emotional disinvestment, (b) lack of critical understanding of race, (c) resurgence of white guilt, and (d) recycling of hegemonic whiteness, all of which negatively impact their role in anti-racist teaching in urban schools

“What is Critical Whiteness Doing in OUR Nice Field like Critical Race Theory?” Applying CRT and CWS to Understand the White Imaginations of White Teacher Candidates

Critical Race Theory (CRT) revolutionized how we investigate race in education. Centralizing counter stories from people of color becomes essential for decentralizing white normative discourse—a process we refer to as realities within the Black imagination .Yet, few studies examine how whites respond to centering the Black imagination, especially since their white imagination goes unrecognized. We propose utilizing Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) to support CRT to aid in deconstructing the dimensions of white imaginations. Our findings describe how the white imagination operates inside the minds of white teacher candidates, namely through their (a) emotional disinvestment, (b) lack of critical understanding of race, (c) resurgence of white guilt, and (d) recycling of hegemonic whiteness, all of which negatively impact their role in anti-racist teaching in urban schools

Health, education, and social care provision after diagnosis of childhood visual disability

Aim: To investigate the health, education, and social care provision for children newly diagnosed with visual disability.Method: This was a national prospective study, the British Childhood Visual Impairment and Blindness Study 2 (BCVIS2), ascertaining new diagnoses of visual impairment or severe visual impairment and blindness (SVIBL), or equivalent vi-sion. Data collection was performed by managing clinicians up to 1-year follow-up, and included health and developmental needs, and health, education, and social care provision.Results: BCVIS2 identified 784 children newly diagnosed with visual impairment/SVIBL (313 with visual impairment, 471 with SVIBL). Most children had associated systemic disorders (559 [71%], 167 [54%] with visual impairment, and 392 [84%] with SVIBL). Care from multidisciplinary teams was provided for 549 children (70%). Two-thirds (515) had not received an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP). Fewer children with visual impairment had seen a specialist teacher (SVIBL 35%, visual impairment 28%, χ2p < 0.001), or had an EHCP (11% vs 7%, χ2p < 0 . 01).Interpretation: Families need additional support from managing clinicians to access recommended complex interventions such as the use of multidisciplinary teams and educational support. This need is pressing, as the population of children with visual impairment/SVIBL is expected to grow in size and complexity.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Perceptions of Linguistically Responsive Teaching in Teacher Candidates/Novice Teachers

This qualitative study examined data from 36 teacher candidates and novice teachers to explore their perceptions and understandings of linguistic responsiveness. The findings illustrate the challenge of demonstrating linguistically responsive teaching practices in the early and initial stages of entering the teaching profession, and more research is necessary to understand how to support teachers. Includes supplemental materials

Serum and Urine Interferon Gamma-Induced Protein 10 (IP-10) Levels in Lupus Nephritis

Background: Lupus nephritis (LN) is a prevalent and severe complication of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Non-invasive diagnostics are limited, and current therapies have inadequate response rates. Expression of the chemokine Interferon-γ-induced protein 10 (IP-10) is regulated by Interferon-γ signaling and NF-κB, and its molecular activity and enhanced urine concentrations are implicated in LN, but its utility as a diagnostic marker and association with demographic, clinical, or pathologic features is not defined. Methods: 38 LN patients and 11 patients with non-LN glomerular diseases (GD) with active disease were included. Eighteen of the LN patients had achieved remission at one follow-up during the study time. Serum and urine were obtained from these samples, and the IP-10 levels were measured. Results: Serum and urine IP-10 levels are significantly enhanced in LN patients with active disease as compared with normal individuals (serum average 179.7 pg/mL vs. 7.2 pg/mL, p p = 0.0019) and patients with other forms of glomerular disease (serum average 179.7 pg/mL vs. 84.9 pg/mL, p = 0.0176; urine average 28.7 pg/mg vs. 0.18 pg/mg, p = 0.0011). Urine IP-10 levels are significantly higher in patients with proliferative LN (PLN) than those with membranous LN (MLN) (average 32.8 pg/mg vs. 7.6 pg/mg, p = 0.0155). Urine IP-10 levels are also higher in MLN versus primary membranous nephropathy (MN) (average 7.6 pg/mg vs. 0.2 pg/mg, p = 0.0193). Importantly, serum IP-10 levels remain elevated during active LN and LN remission, but urine IP-10 levels are decreased from active LN to remission in 72% of our patients. Lastly, serum, but not urine IP-10 levels are significantly higher in African American than White American LN patients in active LN (average 227.8 pg/mL vs. 103.4 pg/mL, p = 0.0309) and during LN remission (average 254.6 pg/mL vs. 89.2 pg/mL, p = 0.0399). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that serum and urine IP-10 measurements provide promising tests for monitoring LN activity, differentiation between classifications of LN, and differentiation between LN and other forms of glomerular disease. We also conclude that further assessment of elevated IP-10 levels in the serum and urine of high-risk populations (i.e., African American) could be beneficial in determining why many of these patients have worse outcomes and are non-responsive to standard therapeutics

Commonsense Properties from Query Logs and Question Answering Forums

10 pages, 6 figuresInternational audienceCommonsense knowledge about object properties, human behavior and general concepts is crucial for robust AI applications. However, automatic acquisition of this knowledge is challenging because of sparseness and bias in online sources. This paper presents Quasi-modo, a methodology and tool suite for distilling commonsense properties from non-standard web sources. We devise novel ways of tapping into search-engine query logs and QA forums, and combining the resulting candidate assertions with statistical cues from encyclopedias, books and image tags in a corroboration step. Unlike prior work on commonsense knowledge bases, Quasimodo focuses on salient properties that are typically associated with certain objects or concepts. Extensive evaluations, including extrinsic use-case studies, show that Quasimodo provides better coverage than state-of-the-art baselines with comparable quality