In this study, we explored older parents' perceptions of their adult sons and daughters with autism in order to gain insights into how parents' beliefs about autism may influence their coping. Narrative analysis of in-depth interviews held with 16 parents aged 60 years and older of adults with autism revealed that these parents perceived that…

As a mother of a daughter with special needs, as well as to a son without, the author can say having had both experiences, all mothers, regardless of her children, struggle in one form or another. That may actually be a part of the job description: Mother: must be able to function well with minimal sleep; is capable of multi-tasking; be clever…

Thirty- and 36-month-old English speakers' (N = 106) ability to produce jokes, distinguish between humorous and sincere intentions, and distinguish between English- and foreign-language speakers, was examined in two tasks. In the Giving task, an experimenter requested one of two familiar objects, and a confederate always gave her the wrong object.…

This study examined the behaviors that teachers in eight large urban high schools in a Northeastern state considered important for good teacher-student relationships. A factor analysis of teacher (N = 103) survey responses revealed three factors related to student behaviors: (a) demonstrating engagement and interest in schoolwork; (b) being…

This study explored how White undergraduate students make meaning of cross-racial interaction in order to provide essential knowledge for practitioners who seek to create curricular and co-curricular activities designed to promote productive interactions around race. This study is guided by two overarching questions 1) How do White undergraduate…

Previous studies indicate that the acoustic features of speech discriminate between positive and negative communicative intentions, such as approval and prohibition. Two studies investigated whether acoustic features of speech can discriminate between two positive communicative intentions: humour and sweet-sincerity, where sweet-sincerity involved…

There are thousands of articles, books, essays, dissertations, and more devoted to leadership in higher education. All of them highlight the importance of a person "out front" who is charged with moving the organization forward and people who follow to ensure that movement takes place. The author's favorite definition of leadership is not found in…

Drawing on Vygostky's zone of proximal development this study explores the ways preservice teachers engage with The Human Bean Activity that was designed to make visible the abstract idea of identity and community. This qualitative narrative analysis explores the talk produced by 47 predominantly White, straight, and female preservice…

In this dissertation I examine the patterns and uses of transgressive humor and sexual talk that male traders from Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) indulge in when at their leisure from trading. I investigate how cultural conceptualizations or ideologies are brought into the present moment through discursive interaction and how the cultural signs…

Native speakers of a language learn word play as part of the language acquisition process, but learners of a new language rarely get that opportunity. English has an unusually large number of opportunities for humorous puns, based on the complex system of spellings, pronunciations, and meanings of English words. There are three main categories of…

This study investigated the ability of 23 kindergarten children to construct stories drawing upon genre conventions in order to differentiate simple narrative stories, a familiar and often-visited genre in the kindergarten literacy classroom, and humorous stories, familiar to the children's literacy experiences mostly outside official literacy…

Based on an analysis of 137 texts written by pupils, this paper examines pupils' humour directed at teachers, its types and social functions. The collected data are divided into three categories that describe different modes of teachers as targets of pupils' humour. The first mode describes teachers as unintentionally comical, the second as duped…

There is a line in Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince" that applies to any endeavor, but especially teaching. It reads: "That which is essential cannot be seen with the eye. Only with the heart can one know it rightly." The essence of teaching is difficult to qualify, but that line leads directly into the author's most essential criterion. In this…

Recent efforts to define qualities of effective teaching practice have done little to capture the role of play, imagination, and creativity in classroom teaching. Drawing on theories of play and data from a two-year case study that included classroom observations, interviews, artifact collection, and surveys, the author examines the ways in which…

Despite growing consensus that dualistic thinking and hierarchically organised binary categorisations must be challenged if inclusion is to be achieved, advice on the design and implementation of non-dualistic pedagogies is less readily available. The role of teacher educators should therefore include: the modelling of possible actions that…