Literacy portfolios: Considering issues of purpose, power, and potential

In this study, I examine the complexities of incorporating literacy portfolios into an elementary school classroom: the purposes for using portfolios, issues of ownership and audience, the nature of children\u27s evaluative decisions, adults\u27 responsibilities in children\u27s development as evaluators, and the institutional pressures impacting adults\u27 abilities to incorporate children\u27s voices into existing evaluative practices. The study was conducted in a third grade classroom where children read and wrote in a variety of genres for authentic purposes and audiences every day. Although the study cannot be described as an ethnography in the strictest sense, research methodology is drawn from that discipline. I gathered descriptive data during a year of participant observation; conducted formal and informal interviews with children and adults; documented and analyzed the oral and written reflections children made about the artifacts they placed in their portfolios; and also reflected on adult attempts to guide children\u27s development as self-evaluators. Particularly interesting is my role not only as researcher, but also co-teacher. As we attempted to use portfolios, we struggled first with issues related to purpose: adults\u27 stated purposes for the portfolios were very different than their operationalized purposes, also children\u27s understandings of the purpose often differed hugely from adult understandings. Furthermore, adults\u27 and children\u27s purposes were often at odds with existing evaluative structures in the school. Next we struggled with issues of power and ownership: If children owned the portfolios, what kinds of adult interventions were appropriate? I document specific teaching interactions--efforts to help students to set goals and make plans, develop strategies, and evaluate their work by criteria. Finally, I consider roles portfolios could assume, first as classroom assessment tools which might potentially replace report cards, and then as tools for developing learner independence and skillfulness. Since such roles will not be possible within existing institutional structures, I conclude by envisioning what new schools might look like

Safety Concerns, Fear and Precautionary Behavior among College Women: An Exploratory Examination of Two Measures of Residency

This study examines the impact of two distinct measures of residency on college women\u27s perceptions of safety, fear of crime and precautionary behaviors within both on-campus and off-campus areas. A student\u27s current residency either on- or off-campus and a student\u27s prior residency in a metropolitan, micropolitan or rural county prior to college are compared across these three aspects of campus safety. Current residency is found to be significantly related to a student\u27s perceptions of safety in off-campus areas around campus, as well as the likelihood of engaging in precautionary behaviors such as avoiding specific locations on campus or carrying or keeping something (for example, weapons) for protection. Prior residency, on the other hand, was not found to impact perceptions of safety, fear of crime or precautionary behaviors

Fear of Acquaintance Versus Stranger Rape as a Master Status : Towards Refinement of the Shadow of Sexual Assault

Using a sample of 1,010 women from a southeastern state university, we explore whether associations between fear of sexual assault and other crime-specific fears vary based on presumed victim-offender relationship. More specifically, we assess the extent to which fear of stranger- and acquaintance-perpetrated sexual assaults differ in the extent to which they are correlated with fear of other crime victimizations. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that both fear of stranger-perpetrated sexual assault and fear of acquaintance- perpetrated sexual assault were positively associated with nearly all other crimespecific fears under examination. However, associations were particularly strong between fear of sexual assault by a stranger and fear of other stranger-perpetrated crimes. Findings have significant implications for how academic institutions should comprehensively address direct and indirect negative influences of violence against college women

The Denial of Emergency Protection: Factors Associated with Court Decision Making

Despite the importance of civil orders of protection as a legal resource for victims of intimate partner violence, research is limited in this area, and most studies focus on the process following a court’s initial issuance of an emergency order. The purpose of this study is to address a major gap in the literature by examining cases where victims of intimate partner violence are denied access to temporary orders of protection. The study sample included a review of 2,205 petitions that had been denied by a Kentucky court during the 2003 fiscal year. The study offers important insights into the characteristics of petitioners and respondents to denied orders and outlines individual, contextual, structural, qualitative/perceptual, and procedural factors associated with the denial of temporary or emergency protective orders. Recommendations for statutory changes, judicial education, and future research to remedy barriers to protection are offered

The potential influence of masculine identity on health-improving behavior in midlife and older African American men

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jomh.2012.02.00

Relationship and Injury Trends in the Homicide of Women Across the Lifespan: A Research Note

In 2006, more than 3,600 women in the United States lost their lives to homicide. Descriptive data regarding homicides of women are beginning to reveal important complexities regarding victim–offender relationships, severity of injury, and age of female homicide victim. More specifically, there is some indication that the correlation between victim–offender relationship and injury severity may be conditional, depending on victim age. This retrospective review accessed medical examiner records of female homicide victims from 2002 through 2004, and its findings offer additional illumination on the trends in associations of injury and relationship variables in the homicide of women over their life span. The study also examined the utility of the recently proposed Homicide Injury Scale (HIS) created by Safarik and Jarvis as a potential tool to explore these complicated associations by quantifying injury severity and examining its interrelationships with victim–offender relationship and age in cases of female homicide in Kentucky