Interdependence of Child Care Resources and the Progress of Women in Society

The development of child care resources on a wide scale has crucial and direct relevance to the progess of women. Child care needs are increasing as growing numbers of women enter the labor force and choose higher educational goals. Identifiable groups of women in different living arrangements who are in need of child care and the availability of various kinds of child care are discussed. The development of need-based alternative child care resources that would facilitate the progress of women is considered in terms of social, economic and political issues. Feasible alternatives for incorporating child care into education and industry are presented. The special advantage of these alternatives is that they would associate child care with work and education rather than with welfare. Because the institutions of work and education are central to society they could provide a broad foundation for the future development of child care on a wide scale.     

Learning in Community for STEM Undergraduates: Connecting a Learning Sciences and a Learning Humanities Approach in Higher Education

Abstract

Previous research demonstrates that social and interpersonal factors, more than academic preparation, affect decisions by under-represented students to stay in or to leave STEM fields. Yet, much of the theorizing about STEM learning in higher education begins with conceptual and epistemological dimensions. We make the case for a new theoretical framework, a learning humanities, that begins with relationships. From this relational starting point, we locate STEM knowers as actors in relationships who become answerable for their STEM knowledge and take wise actions from this place. We then use this framework to analyze learning for STEM undergraduates involved in the STUDIO: Build Our World program, an afterschool mentoring program for low-income, immigrant, and refugee youth of color. Drawing on narrative and ethnographic analyses of data from 12 focal mentors, we found that mentors developed 3 focal practices identified by Edwards, relational expertise, common knowledge, and relational agency through their efforts to create the best possible program for youth. This built mentors’ sense of answerability and a capacity for wise action within and outside of STUDIO. We argue that this theoretical stance provides new ways to conceptualize the nature, purpose, and outcomes of STEM learning for historically non-dominant STEM undergraduates’ learning.