The Influence of Administrators on Literacy Instruction Through the Promotion and Selection of Professional Development

Literacy is a key component to success in school and in life. Literacy has been a focus of education since 1965 when President Jimmy Carter announced a “war on poverty.” Since then, history has shown that educators should place an emphasis on literacy within schools. Because literacy is so important, I set out to explore how administrators influence literacy through the promotion and selection of professional development. Mississippi was chosen as a basis for the study because it falls below the nation in terms of literacy rates on the National Assessment for Educational Progress assessment. Nineteen participants from four school districts across Mississippi were interviewed in this qualitative study. The data was coded and two primary themes emerged, which were professional development and best practices in literacy instruction. Professional development was described in the study as being praxis, research based, data driven, content area specific, and collaborative. Teachers described effective professional development as guiding participants through the process of a new task instead of just telling them about the task. Teachers also stated that effective professional development should be founded on some type of research. Data should also be considered when determining which professional development should be offered. Teachers described that most effective professional development concerned their content area. Finally, teachers discussed the idea of collaborative professional development as being effective, especially professional learning communities. Discussion regarding PLCs and external professional development occurred during interviews as well. Examples of best practices in literacy instruction were also given. Professional development and best practices in literacy instruction came together to provide answers to the research questions posed in the study. Administrators influence literacy through promoting effective professional development practices that encourage best practices in literacy instruction. Conclusions that could be drawn from the research was listed and recommendations for future research was provided

Tele-Lawyering and the Virtual Learning Experience: Finding the Silver Lining for Remote Hybrid Externships & Law Clinics After the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked the world in innumerable ways. This article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has a silver lining for law students in experiential learning programs. The pandemic has forced law schools across the country to fully utilize remote learning technology. The pandemic similarly forced courts to accept virtual tools in an environment that had previously relied primarily on in-person appearances. The lessons that law faculty and judges have learned from the pandemic will be permanent and may change the methods of operation going forward. Law schools that embrace the lessons they learned can help their law students and graduates be better prepared for a new practice environment, as distance learning and virtual law practice are likely here to stay. This article discusses why, despite what some may think, remote learning can happen successfully with experiential education and why virtual experiences will benefit students, their employers, and the public in the future. This article offers a guide as to how one law school, with a long history of remote delivery, made this pivot, and offers concrete guidance for other schools that might want to continue using virtual technology to help deliver experiential education post-pandemic. In Part II of this article, we describe the legal academy’s historic resistance to remote learning and the standards that govern experiential learning. We analogize law school resistance to remote experiential learning to the resistance of parts of our judiciary system in embracing remote court operations. In Part III, we document the way in which COVID-19 changed the world of legal education and the courts. In Part IV, we offer our thesis that virtual or hybrid legal practice is here to stay, and virtual experiential learning is essential training for the modern law student. In Part V, we discuss several pedagogical modifications that should be made to address challenges that arise from the virtual practice format and how to most effectively teach law students. Additionally, we discuss best practices for designing fully remote and hybrid clinic and externship courses. Lastly, in Part VI, we discuss the broader lessons on how remote work in experiential settings can lead the way for transforming modern legal education post-pandemic and provide concrete guidance on how to do so. Finally, we offer an appendix, outlining some practical guidance and a checklist to utilize when designing remote or hybrid externships and clinics

Global Perspectives: Exploring School-Based Brazilian Librarianship Through Institutional Ethnography

Exploring the practices of school-based librarians in other countries fosters new knowledge, contributing to global communities of practice. In 2013, researchers conducted an institutional ethnography study of school-based Brazilian librarianship in South Brazil. Themes identified were: collaboration, literacy, instruction, technology integration, and the learning environment. Themes reflect common challenges faced by Brazilian school libraries such as institutional barriers to collaboration, division of instructional duties, access to materials, and staffing . Themes also speak to distinct ways in which Brazilian school libraries reflect the social and economic disparity between private schools and government-funded public schools, as well as Brazilian society at large

Pulsar polarization: a partial-coherence model

The population of radio pulsars is observed to demonstrate certain polarization properties not explained by the conventional picture of pulsar polarization, namely frequency evolution of polarization, deviations of the linear polarization angle from a curve of geometric origins and the presence of features in the circular polarization. We present the partial-coherence model as a way to explain the co-occurrence of these features and to provide an origin for circular polarization in radio pulsar profiles. We describe the mathematics of the model and demonstrate how it can explain these observed features, both on a population level and for the idiosyncrasies of individual pulsars. The partial coherence model can account for complex polarization behaviour, enabling improved access to information about pulsar geometries. We discuss the scientific implications of this for our understanding of pulsar radio emission and propagation.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure

Innovative Partnerships: Exploring School Librarianship through a Global Lens

Institutional ethnography uncovers how institutional factors shape practice in sometimes unrecognized ways. This IE study on Brazilian school librarianship, conducted in the summer of 2013 in Florianópolis, SC, Brazil, uncovers similar challenges experienced by school library professionals the world over, as well as unique approaches informed by Brazilian culture

Online Supportive Conversations and Reflection Sessions (OSCaRS): A Feasibility Studywith care home staff during the pandemic

A study in three cares homes was undertaken to assess the feasibility of providing online emotional support and practice-based learning on death/dying and end of life care during the pandemic of 2020, to groups of staff in care homes for older people.KEY FINDINGS•The provision of supportive conversations and reflection sessions to care home staff is feasible and acceptable to staff and management. Future implementation should consider the timing of sessions to accommodate staff workflows, the engagement and support of managers, and, the availability of sufficient devices with cameras to aid participation and social distancing across the home.•Facilitators of OSCaRS should have experience of the care home context, work practices and workforce, and, knowledge of palliative and end of life care.•Staff with different roles in the homes attended OSCaRS together and shared their experiences and knowledge. This enhanced feelings of togetherness and aided team cohesion.•Participants valued having a safe space to discuss and share their experiences openly. This offered affirmation and reassurance in addition to the opportunity to reflect on their practice and develop future skills and confidence in end of life care.•Having less knowledge and experience of death/dying and end of life care practice and principles and/or less confidence in talking with relatives appeared to be related to lack of on-site nurses and highlighted the need for increased work-based emotional/wellbeing support.•Online Supportive Conversations and Reflection Sessions (OSCaRS) with the support of palliative care professionals can help mitigate the emotional trauma of COVID-19.•We found that OSCaRS are a feasible, acceptable and beneficial way of providing emotional/wellbeing support through context and challenge specific supportive conversations with care staff which also provides much needed practice-based opportunities to learn about end of life care