Durable Shifts Research Articles

The Covid-19 Learning Crisis as a Challenge and an Opportunity for Schools: An Evidence Review and Conceptual Synthesis of Research-Based Tools for Sustainable Change

This paper advances our understanding of how schools can become change agents capable of transforming local practice to address the challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. It presents a novel application of cultural-historical activity theory to reinterpret evidence on widespread learning loss and increasing educational inequities resulting from the pandemic, and to identify scalable transformative learning opportunities through reframing the crisis as a double stimulation. By reviewing evidence of the emerging educational landscape, we first develop a picture of the new ‘problem space’ upon which schools must act. We develop a problem space map to serve as the first stimulus to articulate local challenges. Integrating this problem space with research on professional change, we identify conceptual tools to capture learning gaps and implement pedagogic interventions at scale, in order to enhance schools’ agency in directly addressing the crisis. These tools can act as the second stimulus, enabling educators to address local challenges. We conclude by discussing the Covid-19 educational crisis as a unique stimulus for professional learning and outline the potential for durable shifts in educational thinking and practice beyond the pandemic. We argue that this unprecedented historic disruption can be harnessed as a transformative professional learning opportunity. In particular, we consider how research on professional change offers local, scalable interventions and tools that can support educators in preventing the new insights from ‘slipping away’ post-pandemic. Utilising the notions of boundaries and tool-mediated professional change, we examine the ways in which this disruption generates opportunities to envision alternative futures for equitable learning in school.

Cherokee Political Thought and the Development of Tribal Citizenship

AbstractCitizenship, a fundamental political idea, exists in many forms in the United States. In this study, I apply the analytical strategies of American political development to examine the evolution of Cherokee constitutional citizenship law since 1827. The lack of political development studies on Cherokee governance presents a unique opportunity to identify foundational and second-story ideas underpinning Cherokee political thought. I contribute to the ongoing discussion of indigenous political development by creating a new theoretical framework for interpreting and analyzing durable shifts in Cherokee citizenship law. As America expands and diversifies, alternate, nonliberal views of citizenship increase in political relevance. Understanding why certain laws exist and where they came from is crucial for cultivating political engagement, engaging in productive discourse, and creating humanizing policies.

Uwagi o urodzeniach i niskiej dzietności w Polsce oraz polityce rodzinnej wspierającej prokreację

The below replacement fertility, persisting in many industrial countries, impacts the decrease in the population dynamics and consequently, the population decline. It also imposes the durable shifts in the age composition, which result in distorting relationships between subsequent generations (children, adults, old people). Therefore, fertility growth has become an increasingly highlighted goal of family policy. The article presents the situation in Poland in terms of changes in births and fertility on the one hand, and family policy reforms on the other hand. The attempt to evaluate whether family policy reforms implemented since 2008 might be considered as supportive for demographic renewal refers to numerous comparative studies on fertility effects of different policy measures. In the conclusion, a strong statement is formulated that to evaluate adequately the effects for demographic renewal from a longer time perspective, policy panel surveys on family relative behaviours and childbearing decisions are needed.

Natural history films raise species awareness-A big data approach.

In urbanized societies that are increasingly disconnected from nature, communicating ecological and species awareness is crucial to revert the global environmental crisis. However, our understanding of the effectiveness of this process is limited. We present a framework for describing how such awareness may be transferred and test it on the popular BBC show Planet Earth 2 by analyzing Twitter and Wikipedia big data activity. Despite lacking explicit conservation themes, this show generated species awareness, stimulating audience engagement for information at magnitudes comparable to those achieved by other conservation‐focused campaigns. Results suggest that natural history films can provide vicarious connections to nature and can generate durable shifts in audience awareness beyond the broadcast of the show—key factors for changing environmental attitudes. More broadly, this study underscores how open‐source big data analysis can inform effective dissemination of ecological awareness and provides a framework for future research for investigating behavioral change.

Lessons from Suppressive Therapy and Periodic Presumptive Treatment for Bacterial Vaginosis.

Suppressive therapy and periodic presumptive treatment (PPT) are distinct but related strategies that have been used to reduce the incidence of bacterial vaginosis (BV). Here, we review clinical trial evidence of the effectiveness of suppressive therapy and PPT to reduce BV, and discuss their roles for women who frequently experience symptomatic or asymptomatic BV. Among women who were recently and successfully treated for symptomatic BV, suppressive therapy with twice-weekly metronidazole gel for 16weeks reduces the likelihood of recurrent symptomatic BV and is currently recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for prevention of recurrent BV. The premise of PPT is to provide regimens used to treat BV at regular intervals to reduce the overall frequency of BV, regardless of symptoms. Three PPT trials were conducted using different routes (oral or intravaginal), doses, and frequencies of administration. Each trial demonstrated a significant reduction in BV over the course 12months, ranging from a 10 to 45% decrease. PPT regimens that substantially reduce the frequency of BV over time could be evaluated in clinical trials to assess whether a reduced frequency of BV leads to subsequent reductions in BV-associated sequelae. While both suppressive therapy and PPT reduce BV, their impact wanes following cessation of the regimen. Given the high prevalence of BV globally and burden of adverse reproductive health outcomes among women with BV, there is a critical need for more effective treatments that produce durable shifts in the microbiota towards vaginal health.

Winds of Change: Voter Blame and Storm Gudrun in the 2006 Swedish Parliamentary Election

Can a natural disaster shift long-standing party support for the long-term? Studies of political behavior indicate that, as elections approach, voters punish or credit governments based on their responses to severe weather phenomena. It may still be considered an open question, however, if poor crisis response could trigger more durable shifts in long-standing party support. I provide empirical evidence suggesting that it could. I exploit a crucial case for the study of change in party support, Storm Gudrun (Erwin), to examine long lasting punishment effects over crisis response. The estimated effect is of a magnitude that equals the largest block-transfer of voters in Swedish history and can be seen over three parliamentary elections (2006, 2010 and 2014).

Student or scholar? Transforming identities through a research writing group

This article explores the role a writing group played in influencing the scholarly identities of a group of doctoral students by fostering their writing expertise. While the interest in writing groups usually centres on their potential to support doctoral students to publish, few studies have been conducted and written by the students themselves. Using a situated learning perspective on identity, we explore the connection that emerged between our perceptions of ourselves as developing expertise as scholarly writers and the function of the writing group as a dynamic space for transforming our identities. Findings show that our writing group served as a flexible and interactive Community of Practice (CoP) that shaped critical and durable shifts in identity amongst members.

Why did the electorate swing between parties during the Great Depression?

The Democratic Party's electoral success during the 1930s has long intrigued politicians and scholars. To gain new insight into that success, this paper examines the striking heterogeneity in county-level support for Roosevelt. Even though the Depression's effects and the New Deal's benefits were famously widespread, only some parts of the country responded with large and durable partisan shifts. One reason is that several factors, including pre-New Deal economic hardship, Dust Bowl conditions, and New Deal spending, appear to have had effects that were largely transitory (i.e., faded by 1940). A complementary reason is that swing electorates can, and did, swing both ways. By contrast, several other variables – notably economic and demographic factors discussed in the previous literature – are related to relatively durable shifts. Finally, heterogeneity in marginal responses may have mattered greatly to national-level Democratic success. By demonstrating which factors were transitory and which were more durable, this paper illuminates the New Deal Realignment and, more generally, the influence of economic conditions and distributive policy on voter behavior.

Revisiting the Roosevelt Court: The Critical Juncture from Consensus to Dissensus

Revisiting the Roosevelt Court: The Critical Juncture from Consensus to Dissensus PAMELA C. CORLEY, AMY STEIGERWALT, AND ARTEMUS WARD Scholars have long debated questions about the decline of consensual norms on the Supreme Court. It is widely understood that ChiefJustice John Marshall is responsible for transforming the institution from one where Justices issued their opinions seriatim—or individually—to a collegial body with a single opinion of the Court. It is also plain that the modem Court is often divided with the Justices only issuing unanimous decisions in about one-third of the cases. What remains unclear, however, is exactly when the norm of consensus ended and what caused its demise. We argue that the institutional transfor­ mation from consensus to dissensus was the result of a series of internal and external changes to the judicial decision-making process during the Roosevelt Court—a period roughly from 1937 to 1947 that was dominat­ ed by Justices appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. These developments—occur­ ring both on the Court and in the broader political environment—fundamentally altered the dynamic among the Justices and forever changed the way they decided cases. The end result was the replacement of collective expression—once the long-standing norm— with individual behavior. We highlight what political scientist Paul Pierson terms a “conjuncture”—a moment in time when “discrete elements or dimensions of politics” collide to produce a new, and often unintended, effect. Specifically, we identify a number of institutional develop­ ments that dramatically altered the extent to which consensus could be achieved in the Court’s decision making.1 We trace these trends by undertaking an extensive examina­ tion ofthe Roosevelt Court—the conjuncture, or moment in time, when its ability to achieve consensus changed. Our investigation is based primarily on the private papers of Justices William O. Douglas and Harlan Fiske Stone, including memos sent between the Justices, draft opinions, and other correspondence, which we use to determine the durable shifts in the Court’s decision-making processes during REVISITING THE ROOSEVELT COURT 21 these years. Our analysis shows that various institutional changes instituted both before and during the Roosevelt Court affected the Court’s decision making and brought about and entrenched a dissensus revolution in which individual expression went from virtual nonexistence to the norm. Most scholars attribute the breakdown in the norm of consensus to internal develop­ ments: specifically, the role of individual Chief Justices. The leadership style of Chief Justice Stone is a common culprit.2 Political scientist Stacie L. Haynie argued that Stone’s predecessor—Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes—was largely responsible.3 Gregory A. Caldeira and Christopher J.W. Zorn, also political scientists, furthered these findings by suggesting that consensual norms ebbed and flowed over time and under different Chief Justices.4 But there is other research that points to external factors such as the rise of organized interests and the change in issues that the Court began to consider—specifically the growth of the civil rights and liberties docket.5 This research suggests that a mixture of both external and internal factors combined to cause the breakdown of consensus. In short, Stone did not operate in a vacuum and his style alone cannot explain the Court’s fundamental transformation that occurred during his tenure. In the following analysis, we identify a number of heretofore-unexplored institutional changes that were imple­ mented during the Roosevelt Court. We suggest that it is these developments that so fundamentally changed the Court’s operation that a return to the norm of consensus was virtually impossible—regardless ofthe Chief Justices or the other Justices that replaced their Roosevelt Court predecessors. Table 1 shows the important institutional developments—internal and external, cause and effect—that occurred during the Roose­ velt Court era. As we detail next, once on the dissensus path, there remained only a “critical juncture” to fundamentally alter the institu­ tion.6 That moment arrived with the conjunc­ ture of the external intellectual force of legal realism, the largely discretionary docket Table 1: Institutional dissensus developments of the Roosevelt Court Causes Effects External developments • Judges’ Bill (1925): increased discretionary docket, growth in civil liberties cases • Influence of legal realism • Rapid...

PARTY REALIGNMENT AND CONGRESSIONAL CHANGE

This study conceptualizes party realignment in terms of interrelated and durable shifts on four “levels”. Several ways in which these levels may relate to one another are suggested, including the possibility of discontinuities among them. The study focuses on elite party composition and balance and roll-call behavior in the U. S. House of Representatives in the period between the Civil War and the 1890s. It concludes that a “minor” party realignment occurred between 1873 and 1877, that veterans' shifts from their previous positions and an influx of Democratic newcomers were major factors effecting Congressional policy-behavior change at that time, but that elite party balance conducive to policy stalemate or complex compromises and Congressional reluctance to embrace some potentially polarizing issues were obstacles to a “major” realignment.

California Populism and the "System of 1896"

TWO-PARTY tradition has dominated American politics since the early days of the Republic. Normal times see relatively stable competition between the two major parties. Substantial continuity in party program is matched by stable party loyalties at the grass roots. One party can usually be called the majority party, although over time the parties often approach a fairly equal distribution of electoral strength. But periodic political transformations occur within the broad confines of twoparty conflict. These periods, as V. O. Key called them, upset party normality. Politics looks very different while they occur, and after they end, than it did before. Critical periods call forth heightened political interest and political conflict at all levels of the society. New issues become central to party competition, creating durable shifts in party allegiance at the grass roots. The balance of power between the major parties changes, sometimes radically. Third parties, relegated to an insignificant role during normal times, are often crucial in reorienting the issues and constituencies of major party politics.1 The significance of these critical periods is not confined to party politics. The critical of the 1850's and 1860's coincide with the Civil War; the depression and the New Deal gave the critical of 1928-36 its importance. Since the forces bringing these transformations left permanent marks deep in American society, we easily remember the critical periods they created. But the 1890's was also a critical period; perhaps since the forces which created it lost rather than won, it has a less secure place in historical memories. The aim here is to analyze the impact of the 1890's on voting patterns in California. To give the California story its true significance, we must first reexamine the national 1896 election from the period perspective.