Employing culturally responsive pedagogy to foster literacy learning in schools

 In recent years it has become increasingly obvious that, to enable students in schools from an increasingly diverse range of cultural backgrounds to acquire literacy to a standard that will support them to achieve academically, it is important to adopt pedagogy that is responsive to, and respectful of, them as culturally situated. What largely has been omitted from the literature, however, is discussion of a relevant model of learning to underpin this approach. For this reason this paper adopts a socio-cultural lens (Vygotsky, 1978) through which to view such pedagogy and refers to a number of seminal texts to justify of its relevance. Use of this lens is seen as having a particular rationale. It forces a focus on the agency of the teacher as a mediator of learning who needs to acknowledge the learner’s cultural situatedness (Kozulin, 2003) if school literacy learning for all students is to be as successful as it might be. It also focuses attention on the predominant value systems and social practices that characterize the school settings in which students’ literacy learning is acquired. The paper discusses implications for policy and practice at whole-school, classroom and individual student levels of culturally-responsive pedagogy that is based on a socio-cultural model of learning. In doing so it draws on illustrations from the work of a number of researchers, including that of the author

Reproductive Strategy of the Giant Electric Ray in the Southern Gulf of California

The objective of the present study was to describe and characterize macroscopic and microscopic aspects of the reproductive biology of the Giant Electric Ray Narcine entemedor, a viviparous elasmobranch targeted by commercial fishers in Mexico. A total of 305 individual rays were captured (260 females, 45 males); all males were sexually mature. The median size at maturity for females was estimated to be 58.5 cm TL, the median size at pregnancy was 63.7 cm TL, and the median size at maternity was 66.2 cm TL. The range of ovarian follicles recorded per female was 1–69; the maximum ovarian fecundity of fully grown vitellogenic oocytes was 17, and uterine fecundity ranged from 1 to 24 embryos per female. The lengths of the oblong ovarian follicles varied significantly among months, and the largest ovarian follicles were found in July, August, and September. Median embryo size was largest in August, and the size at birth was between 12.4 and 14.5 cm TL. Histological evidence of secretions from the glandular tissue of the uterine villi indicate that this species probably has limited histotrophy as a reproductive mode. Vitellogenesis in the ovary occurred synchronously with gestation in the uterus. The Giant Electric Ray has a continuous annual reproductive cycle; a period of ovulation occurs between May and September and two peaks of parturition, one in January and one in August, occur, suggesting that embryonic diapause occurs in some individuals. These results provide useful information for the management of this important commercial species in Bahía de La Paz, Mexico, and will allow possible modification of the current Mexican regulations to enable better protection of this species

Social preferences and network structure in a population of reef manta rays

Understanding how individual behavior shapes the structure and ecology ofpopulations is key to species conservation and management. Like manyelasmobranchs, manta rays are highly mobile and wide ranging species threatened byanthropogenic impacts. In shallow-water environments these pelagic rays often formgroups, and perform several apparently socially-mediated behaviors. Group structuresmay result from active choices of individual rays to interact, or passive processes.Social behavior is known to affect spatial ecology in other elasmobranchs, but this isthe first study providing quantitative evidence for structured social relationships inmanta rays. To construct social networks, we collected data from more than 500groups of reef manta rays over five years, in the Raja Ampat Regency of West Papua.We used generalized affiliation indices to isolate social preferences from non-socialassociations, the first study on elasmobranchs to use this method. Longer lastingsocial preferences were detected mostly between female rays. We detectedassortment of social relations by phenotype and variation in social strategies, with theoverall social network divided into two main communities. Overall network structurewas characteristic of a dynamic fission-fusion society, with differentiated relationshipslinked to strong fidelity to cleaning station sites. Our results suggest that fine-scaleconservation measures will be useful in protecting social groups of M. alfredi in theirnatural habitats, and that a more complete understanding of the social nature of mantarays will help predict population response