Multi-ethnic school environment from the school leader’s perspective: challenges and approaches to improve multi-cultural competency among teachers in Malaysia

This study aims to identify the challenges and approaches to improve a multicultural competency among teachers in multi-ethnic schools environment based on school leaders’ perspective. Data collection method used in this study is qualitative method. A total of nine school leaders from the states of Kedah, Penang, and Perak were included in the interview session. The results of this study show that the challenges faced by teachers in practicing the multicultural competency are lack of experience toward cultural diversity. A late exposure to cultural diversity makes it difficult for teachers to accept and adapt in a multi-ethnic school environment. The approaches suggested by school leaders to improve the multicultural competency are as follows: (1) Courses on cultural diversity should be organized to enhance the knowledge about cultural diversity; (2) the development of more open and better policy for education system in Malaysia in order to prepare teachers with a higher multicultural competency for teaching students from diverse ethnic and cultural groups; (3) an early exposure to cultural diversity in order to increase the multicultural competency, especially during teaching practicum.     

The discrepancy of P-values and posterior probability: Two-sided hypothesis of variance of normal distribution with unknown mean

This article is concerned with the comparison of P-value and Bayesian measure in point null hypothesis for the variance of Normal distribution with unknown mean. First, using fixed prior for test parameter, the posterior probability is obtained and compared with the P-value when an appropriate prior is used for the mean parameter. In the second, lower bounds of the posterior probability of H₀ under a reasonable class of prior are compared with the P-value. It has been shown that even in the presence of nuisance parameters, these two approaches can lead to different results in the statistical inference.     

Is money the main reason mothers return to work after childbearing?

Women’s reasons for returning to work after childbearing are complex, often including a mix of financial and other reasons related to their preferences, choices and constraints regarding employment; various qualitative studies have explored this decision-making process. This paper also considers how these decisions about returning to work are made, but uses quantitative techniques to analyse how reasons for return to work vary with factors such as women’s timing of return to work, what types of jobs they had previously worked in, or returned to, and what type of leave they used. This enables an examination of which women feel more constrained in their labour market options by returning to work sooner than preferred, and also their reasons for returning. Analysis is based on the 2005 Parental Leave in Australia Survey, a survey nested in the Wave 1.5 collection of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Mothers had children aged between 15 and 29 months at this time, and 56 per cent of these mothers had returned to work.     

Psychosocial Correlates of Interpersonal Sensitivity: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis examines how interpersonal sensitivity (IS), defined as accurate judgment or recall of others’ behavior or appearance, is related to psychosocial characteristics of the perceiver, defined as personality traits, social and emotional functioning, life experiences, values, attitudes, and self-concept. For 215 independent studies reported in 96 published sources, higher IS was generally associated with favorable or adaptive psychosocial functioning. Significant mean correlations were found for 27 of the 40 categories of psychosocial variables; these categories covered many different personality traits, indicators of mental health, and social and work-related competencies. Moreover, many additional studies that fell outside these conceptual categories also showed significant positive relations between IS and numerous other psychosocial variables. Taken together, the results support the construct validity of IS tests and demonstrate that IS is associated with many important aspects of personal and social functioning.

感悟化：《东方的太阳》拓展政治抒情诗的新路径

谭仲池先生的《东方的太阳》,把抒情建立在与客体的心灵对话之上,结构穿梭在“求谒”的且歌且行之中,语言紧贴智性化的生命律动,作品以感悟的方式丰富、拓展了政治抒情诗的新路径。     

对外开放形势下的利率风险管理问题研究

我国加入世贸组织后 ,利率市场化进程将加快 ,利率风险将成为我国商业银行的一种主要风险。文章在介绍西方主要的利率风险衡量技术的基础上 ,分析了对外开放形势下 ,我国商业银行利率风险产生的原因 ,并从商业银行、监管当局、金融市场三个层面提出利率风险管理的有关建议     

Mother Tongues

SUMMARY

As women make their first journeys into motherhood, their relationships and discussions with other women, especially other mothers, can be of vital importance. I argue that as women journey into motherhood, they also journey into what might be called a culture of motherhood-a discursive and symbolic realm shared by all mothers. Through interactions among mothers, information, resources, and advice are shared; hierarchies of authority within the community of mothers are established; and women are given opportunities to discursively explore and construct their maternal identities, for example, through the sharing of birth stories. These symbolic, ritualistic, and communicative dimensions of the journey into motherhood can differ between lesbian-identified and heterosexual-identified women. Lesbian mothers can be suspect or marginalized and, at times, feel the need to be circumspect in their interactions. On the other hand, coupled lesbians make the journey into motherhood, into maternal identity, and into the community of mothers, together as a couple. This is not the same for heterosexual women whose most intimate female companions on the journey tend to be friends, sisters, and mothers. Based on research with 53 Canadian mothers, I compare the journeys into motherhood of lesbian and heterosexual women.     

Reunifying Families Affected by Maternal Substance Abuse: Consumer and Service Provider Perspectives on the Obstacles and the Need for Change

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study which examined the views of chemically dependent mothers, child welfare service providers and substance abuse service providers regarding the obstacles to family reunification and recommendations for change. Implications for practice, policy and research are discussed, with special reference to the mandates of the Adoption and Safe Families Act.     

Local predictive influence in bayesian linear models with conjugate priors

Cook (1986) presented the idea of local influence to study the sensitivity of inferences to model assumptions:introduce a vector δ of perturbations to the model; choose a discrepancy function D to measure differences between the original inference and the inference under the perturbed model; study the behavior of D near δ = 0, the original model, usually by taking derivatives. Johnson and Geisser (1983) measure influence in Bayesian inference by the Kullback-Leibler divergence between predictive distributions. I~IcCulloch (1989) is a synthesis of Cook and Johnson and Geisser, using Kullback-Leibler divergence between posterior or predictive distributions as the discrepancy function in Bayesian local influence analyses. We analyze a special case for which McCulloch gives the general theory; namely, the linear model with conjugate prior. We present specific formulae for local influence measures for 1) changes in the parameters of the gamma prior for the precision, 2) changes in the mean of the normal prior for the regression coefficients, 3) changes in the covariance matrix of the normal prior for the regression coefficients and 4) changes in the case weights. Our method is an easy way to find locally influential subsets of points without knowing in advance the sizes of the subsets. The techniques are illustrated with a regression example.     

Children's response to the medical visit for allegations of sexual abuse: maternal perceptions and predicting variables

This study examined maternal perceptions of their child's response to the medical evaluation for alleged sexual abuse. A total of 50 mothers were interviewed 6 months after a visit to a Child Protection Clinic for a medical evaluation of alleged sexual abuse. The mothers answered a questionnaire on their child's reactions to the medical visit. More than 60% of children were perceived as being reassured about physical integrity. The degree of psychological distress was independent of perpetrator's identity and severity of the abuse. Mothers considered that a hypothetical second visit would generate in their child a level of anxiety that increased with perceived intensity of fear of the examination and decreased with perceived kindness of the physician. These results suggest that the physician's behaviour during the medical evaluation for alleged sexual abuse has an influence on the child's degree of distress that is independent of type and severity of abuse. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.