An overview of resources and techniques for literature searching in mental health

The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) invited about 20 development workers - both from NGOs and from other agencies - to spend eight days, travelling from village to village, visiting knowledge centers and other development projects of MSSRF, meeting the volunteers and the local communities and learning from one another and sharing experiences. This report introduces the third workshop held in October 2004. It concentrates on MSSRF’s work and philosophy and emphasizes rightly that at MSSRF ICTs are not seen as a technical solution on their own but as enablers in a process of local prioritization and problem solving. It relates the success of the program to embedding ICTs in a holistic approach encompassing a diverse range of development initiatives.

This dissertation is a nine-month ethnographic study of migrant families' literacies and corresponding value systems. Specifically, while I found that formal education is strongly valued among Mexican migrant groups, it is considered more a marker of prestige than a means to self-realization or economic improvement. In turn, socially transmitted skills and consejos (advice) are more important to migrant communities' survival and personal and material advancement. In order to demonstrate the role of social literacies and the irony that schooled literacy takes in the lives of many rural Mexicans, I trace the historical development of my field site, the town of Villachuato in the state of Michoacán, from its inception as a Spanish-owned hacienda, through its liberation and subsequent small-scale farming initiatives following the Mexican Revolution, and on into the current history of those farms' failure as a result of transnational economic influences like NAFTA. While more and more members of the Villachuato community are being pushed across the Mexico-U.S. border in search of work, public school teachers in rural Mexico are frustrated by rising drop-out rates and perceived student apathy. However, while teachers advocate formal education as the best means of self-improvement, students in Villachuato schools do not find the curriculum relevant to their lives. Rather, they adopt those schooled lessons that they find helpful (i.e., reading and writing skills that help them read street signs and navigate government and commercial bureaucracies); but they actively resist the value systems of meritocracy and personal identity development implicit in public education. By considering the ways in which local communities interface with dominant institutional literacies, this study supports efforts within the New Literacy Studies to unpack the complexities of globalized literacy practices. Further, the discrepancies between Villachuato citizens' priorities and those of their schools suggest important implications for educational policy on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The changing functions, uses, and value of literacy in the lives of three successive biological generations of Anishinaabe residing in the same community form the basis of this study. Aboriginal people need and value western notions of literacy for participation in mainstream society. They are, at the same time, aware that western literacy has been imposed upon them, damaging their own forms of literacy which are closely rooted in their cultural traditions. The study describes three prevailing ideas about literacy among these seven sets of Anishinaabe families. The cultural traditions rooted in their relationships with land and family represent the understandings of Aboriginal literacy for the first generation of Anishinaabe, the oldest of this study. These Aboriginal women and men have constructed broader meanings for literacy that include print traditions and dominant languages, but also respect Aboriginal ways of knowing and incorporate cultural practices that give meaning to how people live and make sense of their world. A shift in cultural traditions and language is apparent as members of the second generation discuss their understandings of literacy within the contexts of family, school, and society. Formal schooling attempted to supplant Aboriginal literacy with the traditions of print in official languages that characterize western literacy. Western literacy becomes the means by which members of the second generation have re-asserted their rights to self-determination. The third generation, the youngest of this study, experience a greater orientation towards western literacy. The features that distinguish Aboriginal literacy are in decline. At the same time, their hold on western literacy allows them to assert their identities and prepare for a future beyond their community. The thesis is intended to challenge western notions of literacy, which privilege the written word and English/French languages, arguing for a broader conceptions of literacy which include languages, narrative traditions, and rich symbolic and meaning-making systems of Aboriginal culture.

It has been argued that contemporary Euro-Canadian teaching practices conflict with traditional Aboriginal teaching practices resulting in the current widespread lack of academic achievement for many Aboriginal students. Of particular concern is the area of print literacy, as achievement in this area has been linked to academic success. This is an area where Aboriginal students in British Columbia score well below their non-Aboriginal counterparts on tests such as the Foundation Skills Assessment. By reviewing traditional Aboriginal ways of transmitting knowledge, it is possible to understand the reason why contemporary Euro-Canadian teaching practices may be inappropriate for Aboriginal students. Drawing on Delpit’s ‘codes of power’ and educational interpretations of Bakhtin’s literary theory, I explore the notion that it is possible for Aboriginal students to be academically successful within the Euro-Canadian system while retaining their traditional Aboriginal identity and ways of knowing. Findings from this exploratory case study, which occurred at a secondary school in a remote Aboriginal community in northern British Columbia, are shared. Interviews with six Aboriginal adolescent students and three non-Aboriginal teachers, as well as personal reflections are also considered. By reexamining the assumptions and beliefs about contemporary Euro-Canadian teaching practices and seeking to learn more about traditional Aboriginal teaching practices, it is anticipated that educators can integrate the strengths of both approaches into their teaching. It is believed that this will enhance success for Aboriginal students in both Aboriginal and Euro-Canadian contexts.

This study examined the effectiveness of two types of assistive technology for writing instruction of students with Down syndrome in British Columbia. Students received either Clicker 5, a symbol-supported writing software program; or Co:Writer, a word prediction software program designed to support written output. Data collection was conducted between January-June 2007 (Year 1) and October-May 2008 (Year 2). Clicker 5 was provided to 43 students in Year 1 (17 of whom also participated in the study during Year 2) and was designed to support early and emergent literacy development. Co:Writer was provided to 18 students in Year 1 (2 of whom also participated in the study during Year 2) and was designed to support text writing. Each month during both school years, teachers were asked to complete an on-line survey with questions related to their impressions of the impact of the technology and other variables. Students in the Clicker group produced 10-minute monthly writing samples about a selected topic using a Clicker grid designed by the research team. Students in the Co:Writer group produced one handwritten and one Co:Writer-supported 10-minute writing sample every month about the specified topic. Data were analyzed with regard to writing rate, spelling accuracy (Co:Writer group only), and quality (measured both analytically and holistically). Results for dependent measures of writing for the Clicker group were variable but provided some support for the use of symbol-supported writing software for producing meaningful written output. The Co:Writer group was more accurate with regard to spelling and grammar while using Co:Writer compared to handwriting. The results are discussed in terms of the practical implications, limitations, and areas for future research.

Literacy expectations on elementary classrooms are intensifying with each outcry for accountability by the public and by educational policy makers (Hoffman & Pearson, 2001). Many states, including Georgia, have developed new performance-based curricula in response to expectations for academic performance (Georgia Performance Standards, 2005). However, few researchers have focused on how teachers interpret these performance standards in their local classroom settings. This collective case study research, established within a social constructivist theoretical frame (Vygotsky, 1978), provided an in-depth examination of how the mandated language arts policy of the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) influenced teachers’ thoughts and decisions about daily literacy instruction. Specific guiding questions for the study were: (1) What literacy expectations do three second-grade teachers have for their students’ literacy development? (2) Where do these expectations originate? (3) How do these three teachers craft and implement instruction in light of their expectations? (4) How do the state mandates constrain or provide opportunities for these three teachers to develop their expectations and implement instruction for their students’ literacy development? Multiple data sources included interviews, classroom observations and field notes, verbal protocols, classroom artifacts and documents, and the researcher’s journal. Data analysis utilized constant comparison and grounded theory analysis within and across cases (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Trustworthiness and rigor were established through credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Guba & Lincoln, 1985). This study was designed to give voice to the teachers at the forefront of increasing accountability measures in Georgia’s public elementary school classrooms. Findings revealed that study participants used different funds of knowledge in complex ways to establish literacy expectations and implement instruction and that a fund of knowledge related to mandated accountability measures was influential in the participants’ instructional decision-making processes. When the delivery model of training for the GPS included opportunities to discuss student learning outcomes and reflect on instructional practices, the GPS directly influenced writing instruction. Implications for action from this study are grounded in the study’s key findings and conclusions and hold relevance for the fields of preservice teacher education, professional learning for teachers, school and county administration, and state and federal educational policy making.

Appropriate preparation for preservice and inservice teachers for teaching content-area literacy continues to influence twenty-first century research agendas. In this systematic review (which analyzed 2,179 articles), the researcher aimed to ascertain and synthesize the research on teacher preparation for content-area literacy instruction while evaluating the methodological qualities of the research. The findings are presented in an article format with the connecting theme of content-area literacy; however, the first article focused on research regarding preservice teachers and the second article on inservice teachers. Whereas, previous reviews have primarily focused on secondary teacher beliefs and attitudes this review provides a broader scope of the research, which encompasses K-16 preservice and inservice teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, instructional practices, strategies, and knowledge of content-area literacy instruction. The major findings from research on preservice teachers are: with a minimum of one content-area literacy course, this teacher preparation may prove to be less than sufficient; in addition, preservice teachers’ beliefs regarding content-area literacy are typically positive, but actual transference once in the classroom is narrow. The major findings from the inservice article suggest the need for further training, modeling, and collaboration of literacy instruction for implementation in content classes. Inservice teachers, albeit experts of their content are restricted by their own motivation and knowledge of literacy strategies, therefore literacy implementation during class instruction is restricted. By reviewing longitudinal and current research as well as building upon previous reviews, these articles closely examine preservice and inservice teacher preparation, instruction, and implementation of literacy instruction in the content-area class.

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There is scant research within educational literature on the nature of visual cognition, language, and expression in relation to cross-culturally driven socio-cognitive and socio-economic development. Indeed, the integrated, multi-disciplinarian approach needed to address the nature of this complex relationship is still being devised. / This dissertation examines a community of artisans located in Kenya's remote western highlands. Over the past ninety years, the community has developed a unique soapstone carving cottage industry. This creative commercial response to the pernicious effects of Western acculturation has somewhat mitigated the severe environmental, demographic, and economic stresses being experienced by most other Gusii communities in the region. / The community-cottage industry's structural and longitudinal dynamics meld traditional artisanal and social practice to Western market mores. However, the industry could not have evolved, nor could it have sustained itself, without a corps of competent artisan-merchants. The creation of such a corps is the result of a distinctive bi-modal educational system consisting of both indigenous training and Western-style schooling. This system, in its totality, helps to develop the requisite cognitive, affective, psychomotor, and linguistic skills essential to artisanal-mercantile practice. Consequently, participating Gusii youth generally graduate knowing how to produce and market soapstone carvings. / This dissertation, drawing from studies in history, economics, psychology, sociology, ethnography, phenomenology, communications, and aesthetics, examines the foundation and growth of this cottage industry as well as its bi-modal education system in tam of its socialization patterns and learning processes. These patterns and processes are related to cross-cultural theories of socio-cognitive and socio-linguistic development and learning. One of the principle features of this particular educational system involves the of visual acumen among its trainees. Such an enhanced faculty is for those whose livelihoods depend literally on pleasing the eyes of Western consumers. Explication of this system, therefore, provides the necessary framework within which to consider the central role that visual cognition, Language and expression plays in the cottage industry.