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Decoupling: Marital Violence and the Struggle to Divorce in China
Full text linkAn analysis of adjudicated divorce decisions in two Chinese provinces reveals the extent to which and the reasons why Chinese courts subvert the global legal norms they symbolically embrace. In China, uncontested no-fault divorces are readily attainable outside the court system. Courts, by contrast, granted divorces in fewer than half of the cases they adjudicated. Despite an abundance of formal legal mechanisms designed to provide relief to victims of marital abuse, a plaintiff’s claim of domestic violence did not increase the probability a court granted a divorce request. Chinese courts’ highly institutionalized practice of denying first-attempt divorce petitions and granting divorces on subsequent litigation attempts disproportionately impacts women and has spawned a sizable population of female marital-violence refugees. These findings carry substantive and theoretical implications concerning the limits and possibilities of the local penetration of global legal norms
Framing, Supporting, and Tracking College-For-All Reform: A Local Case of Public Scholarship
Full text linkThe college-for-all movement is variously framed as a civil rights issue, an economic imperative, and a requirement for navigating our increasingly globalized society. In response, large urban school districts across the United States have adopted and implemented new policies for graduation that require high school students to complete a college preparatory education. These policies are relatively new, and their implications are just beginning to emerge. As a case of public scholarship, we describe the collective problem-solving process that unfolded over a decade, from 2007 to 2017, as researchers and practitioners in a new K-12 urban public school worked together to expand access to college for traditionally underrepresented students. We describe three practical problems—how to frame, support, and track a college-for-all reform effort—and detail how grappling with these problems locally provides unique insight into the larger college-for-all policy context. In particular, we explore the role of learning supports, status hierarchies, and resources in realizing the college-for-all ideal. We also articulate a fundamental framing tension between social justice as redistribution and recognition and suggest that the notion of parity of participation guide policy and action
From the Digital to the Physical: Federal Limitations on Regulating Online Marketplaces
Full text linkOnline marketplaces have transformed how we shop, travel, and interact with the world. Yet, their unique innovations also present a panoply of challenges for communities and states. Surprisingly, federal laws are chief among those challenges despite the fact that online marketplaces facilitate transactions traditionally regulated at the local level. In this Article, we survey the federal laws that frame the situation, especially §230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), a 1996 law largely meant to protect online platforms from defamation lawsuits. The CDA has been stretched beyond recognition to prevent all manner of prudent regulation. We offer specific suggestions to correct this misinterpretation to assure that state and local governments can appropriately respond to the digital activities which impact physical realities
Exploring Tracer Information and Model Framework Trade-Offs to Improve Estimation of Stream Transient Storage Processes
Full text linkNovel observation techniques (e.g., smart tracers) for characterizing coupled hydrological and biogeochemical processes are improving understanding of stream network transport and transformation dynamics. In turn, these observations are thought to enable increasingly sophisticated representations within transient storage models (TSMs). However, TSM parameter estimation is prone to issues with insensitivity and equifinality, which grow as parameters are added to model formulations. Currently, it is unclear whether (or not) observations from different tracers may lead to greater process inference and reduced parameter uncertainty in the context of TSM. Herein, we aim to unravel the role of in‐stream processes alongside metabolically active (MATS) and inactive storage zones (MITS) using variable TSM formulations. Models with one (1SZ) and two storage zones (2SZ) and with and without reactivity were applied to simulate conservative and smart tracer observations obtained experimentally for two reaches with differing morphologies. As we show, smart tracers are unsurprisingly superior to conservative tracers when it comes to partitioning MITS and MATS. However, when transient storage is lumped within a 1SZ formulation, little improvement in parameter uncertainty is gained by using a smart tracer, suggesting the addition of observations should scale with model complexity. Importantly, our work identifies several inconsistencies and open questions related to reconciling time scales of tracer observation with conceptual processes (parameters) estimated within TSM. Approaching TSM with multiple models and tracer observations may be key to gaining improved insight into transient storage simulation as well as advancing feedback loops between models and observations within hydrologic science
Bounding Forward
No full textIn the race to save the planet from climate change, resilience has been misconstrued as sustaining historic conditions. But some of them are undesirable and others no longer feasible. Adaptive governance can promote transformation to help communities frustrated with current conditions
Exploring Preservice Teachers' Beliefs about Effective Science Teaching through Their Collaborative Oral Reflections
No full textTeaching effectiveness is increasingly highlighted as an important quality in teachers, and teacher education programs have used various approaches to improve preservice teachers’ teaching effectiveness. However, how preservice teachers develop their beliefs about effective science teaching and how they enact them in their field experiences have rarely been explored. To better support preservice teachers’ professional growth, we investigate their beliefs about effective science teaching, by examining their discourses during collaborative oral reflection sessions in their early field experiences. We also highlight the possibility of collaborative oral reflection as a medium for improving reflective experiences by evaluating the quality of the preservice teachers’ reflections. Theoretical and practical suggestions for science teacher education and future studies are provided
The temporal dynamics of infants' joint attention: Effects of others' gaze cues and manual actions
No full textInfants' development of joint attention shows significant advances between 9 and 12 months of age, but we still need to learn much more about how infants coordinate their attention with others during this process. The objective of this study was to use eye tracking to systematically investigate how 8- and 12-month-old infants as well as adults dynamically select their focus of attention while observing a social partner demonstrate infant-directed actions. Participants were presented with 16 videos of actors performing simple infant-directed actions from a first-person perspective. Looking times to faces as well as hands-and-objects were calculated for participants at each age, and developmental differences were observed, although all three groups looked more at hands-and-objects than at faces. In order to assess whether visual attention was coordinated with the actors' behaviors, we compared participants looking at faces and objects in response to gaze direction as well as infant-directed actions vs. object-directed actions. By presenting video stimuli that involved continuously changing actions, we were able to document that the likelihood of joint attention changes in both real and developmental time. Overall, adults and 12-month-old infants' visual attention was modulated by gaze cues as well as actions, whereas this was only partially true for 8-month-old infants. Our results reveal that joint attention is not a monolithic process nor does it develop all at once
Thinking About Government Authority: Constitutional Rules and Political Context in Citizens Assessments of Judicial, Legislative, and Executive Authority
No full textThis study replicates and extends previous research on how citizens think about the appropriate exercise of authority across the three branches of government. Three similarly designed experiments with nationally representative samples confirm that what individuals are told about compliance with decision-making rules matters across institutions, but so does the political context in which officials are acting. Significantly, different aspects of political context interact with rules in unique ways in assessments of the appropriate exercise of judicial, legislative, and executive authority. Evidence indicates that citizens’ feelings about the President and their policy preferences are more important in assessments of the legitimacy of unilateral executive action in the Trump administration than they were during Obama’s presidency. This could reflect an erosion in the importance of constitutional norms in citizens’ assessments of executive authority, but other possible explanations specific to our inquiry are also discussed