ASPIRING LITERACY SPECIALISTS\u27 (UN)CERTAINTY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

The purpose of this study was to explore the identities and discourses of 10 students who were completing their Literacy Education MS studies to gain certification as literacy specialists. More specifically, it asked: 1) What do beginning literacy specialists\u27 discourses reveal about their evolving identities? 2) On what discourses do they draw? 3) How are situational, institutional, and societal contexts implicated? A sociocultural view that context, history, culture, discourse, power, and ideologies influence literacy, instruction, and teacher identity grounded this study. The analysis drew on Gee\u27s (2000) notions of identity and discourse. It used critical discourse analysis to consider the oral and written texts produced by 10 graduate students. Data sources included interviews, field notes, and other documents that provided details about the context in which participants were situated. These students\u27 discourses revealed that they were somewhat (un)certain about their identities as teachers, literacy specialists, and people at an important life transition. (Un)certainty, with parentheses, represents individuals\u27 simultaneous uncertainty and certainty. Participants seemed to be figuring out who they were and where they fit within these groups. Most participants were uncertain about how their affiliations within social groups may impact their work in schools. Yet they drew on race, class, gender, experience, and religion to measure their fit relative to others. Their discourses included helping and deficit perspectives. Such discourses could impede their ability to collaborate successfully with future students and colleagues and impact their overall effectiveness. This study provides new insights about aspiring literacy specialists\u27 identities and discourses at an important transitional juncture. At this point, as certified teachers, they were completing advanced studies to earn additional certification as literacy specialists. These insights seem important given that (un)certainty, if left unaddressed, could result in negative identity constructions and continued reliance on deficit positioning, yielding lower quality instruction. The findings have implications for educators and researchers involved in designing literacy teacher education and ongoing professional development. It suggests teacher education may be an important context for offering support to teachers as they consider and critique the discourses they bring to their teaching and/or literacy specialist selves. Such insights may help literacy scholars to attend to the persistent questions, needs, experiences, and insights of those who pursue certification as literacy specialists for any number of reasons

Equilibrium configurations of two charged masses in General Relativity

An asymptotically flat static solution of Einstein-Maxwell equations which describes the field of two non-extreme Reissner - Nordstr\"om sources in equilibrium is presented. It is expressed in terms of physical parameters of the sources (their masses, charges and separating distance). Very simple analytical forms were found for the solution as well as for the equilibrium condition which guarantees the absence of any struts on the symmetry axis. This condition shows that the equilibrium is not possible for two black holes or for two naked singularities. However, in the case when one of the sources is a black hole and another one is a naked singularity, the equilibrium is possible at some distance separating the sources. It is interesting that for appropriately chosen parameters even a Schwarzschild black hole together with a naked singularity can be "suspended" freely in the superposition of their fields.Comment: 4 pages; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Micronutrient status and intervention programs in Malaysia

Approximately 70% of the world's malnourished children live in Asia, giving that region the highest concentration of childhood malnutrition worldwide. Prevalence of stunting and underweight are high especially in south Asia where one in every two preschool children is stunted. Iron-deficiency anemia affects 40%-50% of preschool and primary schoolchildren. Nearly half of all vitamin A deficiency and xerophthalmia in the world occurs in south and southeast Asia. Iodine deficiency disorders have resulted in high goiter rates in India, Pakistan, and parts of Indonesia. Compared with other developing countries in Asia, the nutrition situation in Malaysia is considerably better, owing to rapid economic and socioeconomic development that has occurred since Malaysia gained its independence in 1957. Prevalence of undernutrition and micronutrient deficiency is markedly lower in Malaysian children. Nonetheless, undernutrition in the form of underweight, stunting, and anemia can be found in poor communities throughout the country. A prevalence of 25% underweight and 35% stunting is reported among young children from poor rural households. Anemia and subclinical forms of vitamin A deficiency were reported in children under 5 years old. Typical of a country in nutrition transition, Malaysia faces the dual burden of malnutrition in children, with the persistence of undernutrition problems especially among the poor and the emerging overweight problem especially in urban areas. Since 1996, nutrition programs of the government sector are coordinated under the National Plan of Action for Nutrition. These activities and other nutrition intervention efforts by other agencies are discussed in this paper

Using Web Technology to Teach Students about Their Digital World

In the School of Business at The College of New Jersey, students are required to take two courses in Management Information Technology (MIT). All students enroll in the same first course. This course focuses on Emerging Technologies and intermediate level data analysis skills. Students are then free to choose their second course. Each MIT course requires that we spend time discussing the social, ethical, and legal issues surrounding technology. This is often a difficult lecture because students think that we are preaching rather than educating them. We also face an expanding curriculum due to the explosion in technology but our core curriculum remains limited to these two classes. To help us overcome our challenges, we turned to Web 2.0 technology to create an interactive learning platform where faculty and students could write and comment about emerging social issues surrounding the Web. In the learning environment that we created, students were provided the opportunity to work with many Web 2.0 tools to learn, interact with fellow students, and express their opinions and ideas. Our team employed the open source content management system Wordpress to build, manage, and monitor this site. In addition, we used Google Analytics to gather usage information. This paper will discuss the process we took to build and use the site and some of the lessons we learned along the way

Cutaneous adverse events associated with disease-modifying treatment in multiple sclerosis: A systematic review

Glatiramer acetate and interferon-beta are approved first-line disease-modifying treatments (DMTs) for multiple sclerosis (MS). DMTs can be associated with cutaneous adverse events, which may influence treatment adherence and patient quality of life. In this systematic review, we aimed to provide an overview of the clinical spectrum and the incidence of skin reactions associated with DMTs. A systematic literature search was performed up to May 2011 in Medline, Embase, and Cochrane databases without applying restrictions in study design, language, or publishing date. Eligible for inclusion were articles describing any skin reaction related to DMTs in MS patients. Selection of articles and data extraction were performed by two authors independently. One hundred and six articles were included, of which 41 (39%) were randomized controlled trials or cohort studies reporting incidences of mainly local injection-site reactions. A large number of patients had experienced some form of localized injection-site reaction: up to 90% for those using subcutaneous formulations and up to 33% for those using an intramuscular formulation. Sixty-five case-reports involving 106 MS patients described a wide spectrum of cutaneous adverse events, the most frequently reported being lipoatrophy, cutaneous necrosis and ulcers, and various immune-mediated inflammatory skin diseases. DMTs for MS are frequently associated with local injection-site reactions and a wide spectrum of generalized cutaneous adverse events, in particular, the subcutaneous formulations. Although some of the skin reactions may be severe and persistent, most of them are mild and do not require cessation of DMT

The Raploch: A history, people's perceptions and the likely future of a problem housing estate

This article explores the experience of belonging and identity, and the social distance and separateness which has long characterised aspects of Stirling’s Raploch housing estate. Detailed historical archive work uncovered the limited social planning and architectural ambitions set for this housing estate, when compared to the earlier Riverside development. The consequences of such decision making and subsequent poor management of the estate is then articulated through a series of qualitative interviews which explore attitudes to the construction and sustaining of neighbourhood and community identities. Achieving a physical solution to Raploch's social problems has eluded a series of recent regeneration initiatives and this paper suggests that the core problem is not primarily architectural but rather one of class related discrimination and stigma which has been core to Raploch's identity since the 16th Century

What role do maintained nursery schools play in Early Years sector improvements?

This study, funded by TACTYC, is located within the context of a body of knowledge concerning the past, present and future of the maintained nursery school (MNS) in England. Although there are some existing reports which focus on particular regions of England (for example: No Author, 2018; Bertram and Pascal, 2019) and some which identify issues that are relevant across the whole country (for example: Early Education 2014, 2015, 2018; Paull and Popov, 2019), they all identify themes pertinent to the transformative effects of the MNS both historically and contemporaneously, within and beyond the parameters of the Early Years sector. However, these reports also alert the reader to significant challenges that may mitigate against MNSs’ ability to continue, due to structural pressures that are beyond their control