Asymmetries of knowledge between children and teachers on a New Zealand bush walk

Abstract This article presents the analysis of a single case interaction between two preschool children aged four-years-old and their male early childhood teacher during a routine excursion to the New Zealand bush. The findings build on prior research that revealed how child-initiated enquiries orienting to an environmental feature in the outdoor space provoked an affiliated interaction with the teacher, or not. The current article suggests that, although early childhood education promotes a socio-cultural co-construction of knowledge, asymmetries of knowledge are often present in everyday practice. A call to investigate the interactional features of co-construction and scaffolding is recommended

The teaching and learning research programme (TLRP) in Wales: research evidence for educational policy and practice in Wales

Alex Morgan and Jane Waters, Swansea University; Jane Williams

Investigating the role of CBX2 in ER- positive breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women, with oestrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancers being the most common subtype. Although there are targeted endocrine therapies for this receptor, resistance mechanisms mean that they are not always effective. Post-translational modifications of histone proteins are important for regulating gene expression. It is known that the pattern of modifications is different in cancerous tissue compared to normal tissue. Epigenetic reader proteins recognise histone post-translational modifications and help remodel the adjacent chromatin landscape, resulting in gene expression or repression. This means epigenetic reader proteins are possible novel therapeutic targets. CBX2 is an example of an epigenetic reader protein which is overexpressed in ER-positive breast cancer. The aim of this study was to analyse the role of CBX2 in ER-positive breast cancer. This was assessed by knocking down CBX2 gene and protein expression, using siRNAs in MCF-7 and T47D cell lines and analysing changes to cellular phenotype and gene expression regulation. It was determined that CBX2 in the breast cancer cell lines was a nuclear activated phosphorylated form of the protein, and that knockdown of CBX2 has little effect on H2AK119ub and H3K27me3, but causes decrease of H3K27ac. Phenotypic experiments analysed the effect of CBX2 on cell growth, using MTS and apoptosis assays, and showed that CBX2 knockdown reduced cell number and increased cell death. RNA- Sequencing analysis identified that CBX2 has a role in regulating genes within the cell cycle and ER-signalling pathway. The effect on ER-target genes was validated by quantitative-PCR. Additional investigation of the RNA-Seq data will further validate the role of CBX2 in ER-positive breast cancer. Continued research is important for developing therapies for the future treatment of this cancer

The making of a chloroplast

Since its endosymbiotic beginning, the chloroplast has become fully integrated into the biology of the host eukaryotic cell. The exchange of genetic information from the chloroplast to the nucleus has resulted in considerable co-ordination in the activities of these two organelles during all stages of plant development. Here, we give an overview of the mechanisms of light perception and the subsequent regulation of nuclear gene expression in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and we cover the main events that take place when proplastids differentiate into chloroplasts. We also consider recent findings regarding signalling networks between the chloroplast and the nucleus during seedling development, and how these signals are modulated by light. In addition, we discuss the mechanisms through which chloroplasts develop in different cell types, namely cotyledons and the dimorphic chloroplasts of the C4 plant maize. Finally, we discuss recent data that suggest the specific regulation of the light-dependent phases of photosynthesis, providing a means to optimize photosynthesis to varying light regimes

The Foundation Phase in Wales – time to grow up?

This article provides an overview of the life of the Foundation Phase in Wales to date. It considers where we have been, where we are now and where we might go, in relation to early years education provision since devolution. With reinforced governmental backing for the future of the Foundation Phase, the article considers what lessons can be taken forward to scaffold the effective longevity of an initiative that, in general terms, enjoys warm support locally and the envious attention of external observers. The article spends some time establishing ‘where we have been’, in order to fully set the context of ‘where we are’ and ‘where we might go’

'Those times' : politics, culture and confession in the poetry of Anne Sexton

PhD ThesisThis thesis constitutes the first sustained attempt to situate the poetry of Anne Sexton in relation to postwar. American' politics. While there has been a recent resurgence of academic interest in the politics of mid-century confessional literature, the current crop of poetry scholarship throws focus on the work of Robert Lowell, John Berryman, and Sylvia Plath, and has hitherto neglected to examine the ways in which Sexton's creative praxis might be productively re-examined alongside contemporary critical theory and postwar political history. In the following chapters, I interrogate the received status of Sexton's poetry as psychic theatre and, demonstrate the terms-of its political engagement through a detailed analysis of its referential framework, which is, I argue, structured around key crises in postwar American history: the legacy of the Holocaust; the Cold War; the Vietnam conflict, and the rise of feminism. More explicitly, I explain how these historical paroxysms are registered in the metrical arrangements of Sexton's poems. Through reference to the work of Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Cathy Caruth, I locate her writing within the psychoanalytic discourse of trauma, in which the traumatic event - though not perceived fully at the time of its occurrence - is unconsciously re-experienced, or `acted-out', through the repetitive, compulsive, and automatic mechanisms of the subject's speech and behaviour. My thesis thus positions Sexton's poetry as a mode of acting-out, in which the socio-political upheavals of the twentieth century are not only expressed in directly referential terms, but are also woven into the formal fabric of the poetry itself. In addition, the following chapters show how the political lineaments of Sexton's poetry might be usefully illuminated through reference to the Cold War ideology of `containment' and the interlocking, if vexed, economies of privacy, conformity, and contamination.Arts and Humanities Research Council, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

A review of research of the education of the mentally retarded child

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Young Children’s Outdoor Play-Based Learning

In this chapter, we consider current thinking about young children’s learning when they engage in outdoor play. The role of the teacher, parent and/or caregiver (hereafter ‘adult’) and the importance of cultural context in relation to the learning that takes place outside is explored. Recent research, noting the reduced opportunities for unsupervised outdoor play, centres upon: The child’s developmental outcomes, e.g., physical, socio-emotional, cognitive, creativity and imagination; as well as connections with the non-human natural world. The adult’s role in children’s play, learning, access to and engagement with the outdoors. The setting, i.e., urban spaces, natural/non-built spaces, pedagogical spaces

Risk-taking in the New Zealand Bush: issues of resilience and wellbeing

This article discusses a single case analysis of teacher-child interactions on an everyday bush walk in New Zealand. It uses a combination of the Leuven wellbeing scale (Laevers, 2000) and a conversation analysis approach to explore how children and teachers attend to specific features of the outdoor environment in a way that encourages risk-taking and builds resilience through problem solving. The collaborative achievement of the activities between the pre- school teacher and the fouryear-old children are discussed as an important and necessary aspect of the interactions, which we suggest may represent physical sustained shared thinking, for supporting wellbeing whilst building resilience and risk-taking. Implications for future practice are considered with regard to implementation of early childhood curricula