The Role of Preschool Peers in Children's Language Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (02) ◽  
pp. 088-100
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Purtell ◽  
Arya Ansari ◽  
Qingqing Yang ◽  
Caroline P. Bartholomew
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Preschool Classrooms ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Maximum Benefit ◽  
Recent Attention

AbstractAlmost 5 million children attend preschool in the United States each year. Recent attention has been paid to the ways in which preschool classrooms shape children's early language development. In this article, we discuss the importance of peers and classroom composition through the lens of age and socioeconomic status and the implications for children's early learning and development. We also discuss the direct and indirect mechanisms through which classroom peers may shape each other's language development. As part of this discussion, we focus on exposure to peer language and engagement with peers, along with teachers' classroom practices. We conclude by discussing the ways in which teachers can ensure that children in classrooms of different compositions reap the maximum benefit, along with implications for research, policy, and practice.

Daring to differ? Strategies of inclusion in peacemaking

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas T Hirblinger ◽  
Dana M Landau
Keyword(s):  
Research Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Third ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
Single Identity ◽  
Sociopolitical Structures ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Do So ◽  
Specific Identity

‘Inclusion’ has emerged as a prominent theme in peacemaking. However, its exact meaning remains vague, as do assumptions about the relationship between inclusion and peace. This article seeks to problematize the research, policy and practice of inclusion. Focusing on United Nations (UN) peacemaking, we ask how the object of inclusion has been framed, and based on what strategies and underlying rationales. We do so against the backdrop of emerging debates about an agonistic peace, which suggest that violent antagonistic relationships can be overcome if peace processes enable contestation between adversaries. This requires that peacemakers recognize the constitutive role of difference in political settlements. We identify three distinct strategies for inclusion, with corresponding framings of the included. Firstly, inclusion can be used to build a more legitimate peace; secondly, to empower and protect specific actor groups; and thirdly, to transform the sociopolitical structures that underlie conflict. The first strategy frames the included in open terms that can accommodate a heterogeneity of actors, the second in closed terms pertaining to specific identity traits, and the third in relational terms emerging within a specific social, cultural and political context. In practice, this leads to tensions in the operationalization of inclusion, which are evidence of an inchoate attempt to politicize peace processes. In response, we argue for an approach to relational inclusion that recognizes the power relations from which difference emerges; neither brushing over difference, nor essentializing single identity traits, but rather remaining flexible in navigating a larger web of relationships that require transformation.

Criminological responses to climate change

2018 ◽  
pp. 139-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob White
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Public Intellectuals ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Future ◽  
Areas Of Concern ◽  
Regional Interests

This concluding chapter summarises the main propositions and areas of concern for Climate Change Criminology. It also emphasises the role of criminologists as public intellectuals and political activists, and the necessity that there be stewards and guardians of the future. This translates into prioritising research, policy, and practice around climate change themes. For criminologists, this means that they need to go beyond parochial viewpoints and those perspectives that frame harm in terms of national or regional interests. Their loyalty has to be to the planet as a whole, rather than being bound by a narrow prescriptive patriotism based on nation. Ultimately, the endeavour of Climate Change Criminology should be to create the conditions for a future that is more forgiving and generous rather than exploitive of humans, environments, and animals.

scholarly journals Working out What Works: The Role of Tacit Knowledge Where Urban Greenspace Research, Policy and Practice Intersect

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 5029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Dobson ◽  
Nicola Dempsey
Keyword(s):  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Urban Nature ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Urban Greenspace

Policymakers and practitioners working in urban greenspace management want to know what kind of interventions are effective in promoting mental wellbeing. In practice, however, they rely on multiple forms of knowledge, often in unwritten form. This paper considers how such knowledge is interpreted and used by a range of stakeholders to identify greenspace interventions to support residents’ health and wellbeing in one UK city. It examines the interface between academic research, policy and practice, drawing on the findings of a three-year study in Sheffield, UK. The Improving Wellbeing through the Urban Nature project investigated the links between ‘urban nature’ and mental health. One strand of the research sought to influence policy and practice, and this article presents findings and reflects on some of the processes of this exercise. It highlights the role of tacit knowledge in practice and its influence on practitioners’ choice of greenspace interventions and the challenges in drawing on such knowledge to influence policy. The findings affirm practice-based knowledge as socially situated, interpretively fashioned and politically weighted. This paper concludes by demonstrating the importance of considering the local context when devising policy prescriptions for greenspace provision and management.

Bilingual Education: What Role for Mathematics Teaching?

1980 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 14-17
Author(s):  
C. James Lovett
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Language Arts ◽  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Mathematics Teaching ◽  
The United States ◽  
Bilingual Programs ◽  
Mathematics Educators

The first bilingual schools in the United States were established prior to 1850 (Andersson and Boyer 1970) and bilingual education has existed in some form since that time. In recent years the field has expanded greatly and the literature on bilingual education has increased correspondingly, most of it focusing on general issues of language development and on the specific areas of language arts, reading, and social studies. Very little has been written specifically on the role of mathematics in bilingual classrooms. Not only must interested teachers search for isolated bits and pieces of information, but they also frequently discover that mathematics educators in many cases have been left out of the planning and implementation of bilingual programs.

scholarly journals Child Neglect and Emotional Maltreatment

Social Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassandra Simmel ◽  
Svetlana Shpiegel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Emotional Abuse ◽  
Child Neglect ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
True Incidence ◽  
Resource Information

Child maltreatment is a pervasive and widespread phenomenon in the United States. While the incidence of child maltreatment had been on the decline until approximately 2012, since that time, the rates have increased somewhat. Child maltreatment affects all age groups of children and youth, although infants and younger children are at the highest risk for victimization. In addition, for many years, all forms of child maltreatment were addressed collectively, with scant research on how distinct types might co-occur or individually present. Through many research, policy, and practice advances in recent years, there is growing awareness regarding how each abuse type is relatively unique in terms of the risks for manifestation, as well as in the outcomes from and interventions for their respective perpetration. Two types of maltreatment—child neglect and emotional abuse—reflect intriguing trends in this overall phenomenon. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, across all types of maltreatment, child neglect is the most frequently reported form of abuse, while emotional abuse is among the least reported. These reports, however, are derived from statutory definitions and investigations and likely do not convey the true incidence of abuse that occurs in the United States. Moreover, these two types of maltreatment are all the more compelling because they can be perceived as not having visible signs of victimization, thereby making the recognition and verification of their harm difficult to discern. As such, for this and several other factors, research on neglect and emotional abuse have often been linked together. Since the 1990s, however, research has begun to highlight the unique contextual factors associated with their manifestation as well as the negative ramifications of each. Therefore, this chapter begins by presenting broad reference and resource information relevant to both types of abuse. Subsequently, the chapter diverges to focus solely on neglect and emotional abuse as distinct forms of child maltreatment.

Commentary on a “unified approach to behaviours that challenge”: against consensus – why we need a new field of challenging behaviour studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-172
Author(s):  
Stacy Clifford Simplican
Keyword(s):  
Research Policy ◽  
Challenging Behaviour ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Direct Support ◽  
Positive Behaviour Support ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper challenges the value of consensus within the field of learning disability. In this commentary, the author argues that consensus threatens to silence multiple viewpoints, hides how power operates and stifles creativity. Design/methodology/approach The author focuses on two articles within this special issue to suggest that the consensus celebrated is more about a set of shared values, rather than a set of shared practices. This should make us question the depth of the field’s consensus. Findings The presumption that multiple paradigms can be “unified” actually hides how power operates to resolve disagreements among positive behaviour support, active support and human rights approaches. A similar erasure occurs in the language of “capable environments,” which the author argues obscures the role of individuals, relationships and organizational cultures in impacting quality of life. Research limitations/implications We need to create and build a new interdisciplinary field of challenging behaviour studies that is willing to embrace conflict and disagreement in research, policy and practice. Practical implications The author believes that this approach is more likely to empower people, including people with learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges, family members, and direct support workers because it is more likely to recognize their experiences and expertise. Originality/value A new multidisciplinary field of challenging behaviour studies may encourage more theoretical diversity that makes us challenge the value of consensus and embrace creativity.

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