Socioeconomic Class Background Research Articles

Gendering and Beyond: Analyzing Children’s Early Year Education and Teaching Methodologies Employed in Rawalpindi/Islamabad’s Private Schools

This study aims to explore whether, the teaching methodologies deployedin private schools in Islamabad are confining children (between the agesof 3-12 years) to polarized gender identities? This question of children’sgendering becomes pertinent when we explore the implications of raisingchildren in gender confined environments. This research will analyze themechanisms deployed in private Montessori/Kindergarten and elementaryschools in Islamabad from feminist perspective. For this purpose,qualitative method research will be used, and we will conduct semistructured interviews with fifteen school teachers of five private schoolsbased in Islamabad. This particular category of schools has been chosenbecause these schools draw their teaching methodology and curriculumfrom the American and British systems of education. Based on thispremise these schools claim to be progressive and forward looking in theirscope to education and child development. Moreover, these privateschools are engaged with different international syllabi and techniques toengage the students of diverse socio-economic class backgrounds. Basedon this premise these schools claim to be progressive and forward lookingin their scope to education and child development. However, given thelack of attention to social learning in schools this study aims to find outwhether such ‘modernist’ schools are also blinded by the concerns forraising children in gender discriminatory environments. The paper aims toestablish that if gender binaries are transmitted to children through earlyyears schooling then what consequences does that instill on the childrenfrom the feminist standpoint. But the question that how and whetherchildren can be trained in schools to live beyond gendered binaries arebeyond the scope of this paper.

Place-Identity in boundaryless careers: Narratives of medical students from lower socio-economic class backgrounds

Medical schools are working to widen access to students from lower socio-economic backgrounds, particularly through targeted recruitment within under-doctored regions of the UK. Drawing upon recent research, this article explores ways that place-identity theory can be helpful to career professionals, particularly when thinking about the extent to which where individuals are from influences where they (can) go and what they might need to sacrifice to get there. Bounded student narratives expose the ‘dark side’ of the social mobility agenda and clash with the quasi-colonial ‘world is your oyster’ rhetoric of the boundaryless career. Implications for practice are discussed.

Patterns of students' and teachers' interactions in learning centres: a case study of three teacher leaders in an elementary school

This study investigated the instructional practices of three teacher leaders employed in a diverse, elementary school in the USA. Through extended observations, it was found that learning centres occupied a central role in the organisation and learning in each of the classrooms. Bernstein's theory of classification and framing was used to analyse the patterns of classroom interactions and identify the skills and values from learning centres. This research critically examined the role centres play in developing academic and social skills in learners, including those learners from lower socio-economic backgrounds and English language learners (ELL). Learning centres were constructed on an expectation that learners made self-initiated decisions, collaborated with peers, and contributed to the development of students' academic, linguistic, and social skills in students of colour, students from lower socio-economic class backgrounds, and ELL.

Bajo peso al nacer: exploración de algunos factores de riesgo en el Hospital Universitario San José en Popayán (Colombia)

Introducción: el bajo peso al nacer (BPN) es un importante problema de salud pública en los países en desarrollo y es un indicador de la salud materno-infantil. El peso al nacer por debajo de 2.500 g contribuye a problemas de salud materno-infantiles de corto y largo plazo.Objetivo: establecer los factores asociados con el bajo peso al nacer en el Hospital Universitario San José, Popayán (Colombia), en el período comprendido entre los años 2005 y 2006.Métodos y materiales: estudio de casos y controles. Los casos (n=344) fueron los recién nacidos con peso menor a 2.500 g que nacieron en este hospital. Los controles (n=483) fueron recién nacidos con peso mayor a 2.500 g que nacieron el mismo día. Se realizó una entrevista en mujeres después del parto para recoger información acerca de los factores de riesgo; y se estimó elOdds Ratio (OR, por sus siglas en inglés) y sus respectivos intervalos de confianza (IC95%) utilizando un modelo de regresión logística.Resultados: como factores de protección se consideraron: antecedentes de estrato socioeconómico medio/superior (OR=0,33; IC95% 0,12-0,91), sexo femenino del recién nacido (OR=0,73; IC95% 0,55-0,98), tener más de 5 controles prenatales (OR=0,54; IC 95% 0,39-0,75) y no tener antecedentes previos de BPN (OR=0,30; IC95% 0,15-0,58). Entre los factores de riesgo se encontraron: antecedentes de infecciones del tracto urinario (OR=1,78; IC95% 1,30-2,45) y cesárea anterior (OR=1,88; IC95% 1,13-3,16).Conclusión: el bajo peso al nacer está asociado con el estrato socioeconómico, por lo que intervenir en la falta de equidad social es un factor de importancia para la reducción del BPN en el área de influencia de este centro de atención terciario.

Adults With Down Syndrome

Adults With Down Syndrome

Multicultural Education and the Digital Divide: Focus on Socioeconomic Class Background

Multicultural Education and the Digital Divide: Focus on Socioeconomic Class Background

Welfare‐to‐Work Services: A Person‐Centered Perspective

Services designed to assist job seekers to leave public assistance and gain employment are well established throughout the U.S. Many of these programs are created and delivered by professionals of higher socioeconomic class backgrounds, but many program participants are of lower social class status. This situation can create “cross‐class” difficulties in the design and delivery of effective job‐search services. The author argues that using a person‐centered perspective, with the deliberate inclusion of genuineness and empathy in all phases of programming, may neutralize cross‐class variables and increase the effectiveness of interventions. Examples from programs emphasizing person‐centered concepts are offered.

Mathematics and science attitudes of African‐American middle grade students identified as gifted:gender and grade differences

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether significant gender and grade differences existed in the mathematics and science attitudes of 117 African‐American middle grade students identified as gifted using the Fennema‐Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales (Fennema & Sherman, 1976) and Attitude Survey of Junior High Science (Fisher, 1973). Subjects came from communities that were culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse, and had lower middle to middle socioeconomic class backgrounds. They ranged in age from 11 to 13 years. They were pulled out from their classes and administered both instruments in groups. A two‐way analysis of variance revealed significant gender differences in attitude toward success in mathematics and perceptions of mathematics as a male domain. No significant grade differences or interactions were found in any of the variables.

A developmental comparison of identity and equivalence conservations

The developmental priority of identity conservation as contrasted with equivalence conservation theorized by Elkind (1967) was investigated using quantity and number conservation tasks. Subjects were 60 four-, five-, and six-year-old children of middle socioeconomic class background. All children received a battery of tasks which included qualitative identity, quantitative identity, and equivalence conservation of quantity and number problems. For the quantity battery, under the without justification condition, conditional probabilities and significant performance differences in the mean number of trials passed indicated that the order of acquisition of quantity tasks did conform to the hypothesized sequence: qualitative identity, quantitative identity, and equivalence conservation. No significant performance differences for number concepts were noted for both justification and without justification conditions. Scalogram analyses performed upon the combined quantity number task array indicated a scale or quasi-scale in the predicted order of difficulty. It was concluded that identity concepts develop prior to equivalence concepts when the content area is quantity conservation. In contrast, clear-cut conclusions cannot be made about number conservation.

INCORPORATION OF VALUES BY LOWER AND MIDDLE SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS PRESCHOOL BOYS

ERMALINSKI, RICHARD, and RUSCELLI, VINCENT. Incorporation of Values by Lower and Middle Socioeconomic Class Preschool Boys. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 629-632. 20 preschool boys of lower socioeconomic class (SEC) backgrounds and 20 preschool boys of middle SEC backgrounds were compared on the incorporation of 5 adult middle SEC values. Criteria for the selection of test values were (a) that they be representative of adult middle SEC values and (b) that they be relevant to and have implications for success in the classroom. The results indicated that lower SEC preschool boys had incorporated cleanliness (p < .01) and honesty (p < .05) to a significantly lower degree than had middle SEC preschool boys.

Stick Copying of Designs by Preschool and Young School-Age Children

An experimental Stick Design Test (SDT) was administered to 339 children ages 3–1 to 7–10 yr. Results indicated that copying ability was primarily a function of developmental age and secondarily a function of socioeconomic class background. Significant Pearson product-moment correlations between Stick Design Test copying performance and Bender-Gestalt Visual Motor Test (.60), Stanford-Binet IQ (–.31), Metropolitan Readiness Test (–.65) and teacher behavioral ratings were found on a sample of 96 kindergarten children. Test-retest ( r = .94) and scorer reliabilities ( rs = .96, .93, .96) were obtained for the experimental SDT.

Social class, parental encouragement, and educational aspirations.

In this study of a randomly selected cohort of 10,318 Wisconsin high school seniors, correlational, path, and cross-tabular analyses show that socioeconomic status, intelligence, and parental encouragement all have substantial independent relationships to college plans of males as well as of females and that neither intelligence nor parental encouragement-individually or jointly-can completely account for social class differences in college plans. It substantiates, however, the claim made by other investigators using less rigorous methods and less representative samples that parental encouragement is a powerful intervening variable between socioeconomic class background and intelligence of the child and his educational aspirations. Parental encouragement appears to have its strongest effect on the college plans of males and females who score relatively high on intelligence and come from families occupying relatively high socioeconomic position. Also, ability continues to accentuate the social class differences in aspirations of both males and females regardless of parental encouragement.