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The current state of nursing education is concerning, with nearly two-thirds of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) -accredited universities reporting that their nursing graduates are ill-prepared to care for the LGBTQIA+ community (Eickhoff, 2021). This lack of training is alarming, given the ongoing reports of LGBTQIA+ healthcare discrimination and the insufficient knowledge of nursing faculty to guide future nurses in caring for this patient population (Hughes et al., 2022). Our study sought to address this gap by developing and assessing the effectiveness of an LGBTQIA+ inclusivity training module for Baccalaureate nursing students. We employed a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, evaluating nursing students' knowledge and attitudes before and after the LGBTQIA+ inclusivity training. The study was conducted in a four-year baccalaureate nursing program in the Southern United States. Junior-level baccalaureate nursing students. Using a pre-test post-test method, we collected data that included the Gay Affirmative Practice Scale, an LGBTQIA+ knowledge assessment, and a computer-based LGBTQIA+ inclusivity training module. N = 30 students consented and completed all necessary study components. The findings revealed significant improvements in pre-test and post-test GAP and knowledge assessment scores following the LGBTQIA+ Inclusivity Training for baccalaureate nursing students. The results of our study underscore the effectiveness of an LGBTQIA+ computer-based simulation experience for baccalaureate nursing students, marking a significant step towards improving LGBTQIA+ healthcare inclusivity in nursing education. • Simulation provides a safe environment for exploring controversial nursing cases. • A computer-based simulation experience improved Gay Affirmative Practice scores. • Significant knowledge gain followed the LGBTQIA+ computer-based simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed many changes in services for learning disability clients, with concomitant changes in the role of learning disability nurses. Career pathways have expanded with the development of [...]

TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ: The Teacher Makes the Difference (6th ed.). D. Ray Reutzel & Robert B. Cooter, Jr. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, 2012. 610 pp. Paperback, $133.40. This comprehensive, [...]

There is an ongoing tension within educational policy worldwide between countries that seek to reduce the opportunities for teachers to exert judgement and control over their own work, and those who seek to promote it. Some see teacher agency as a weakness within the operation of schools and seek to replace it with evidence-based and data-driven approaches, whereas others argue that because of the complexities of situated educational practices, teacher agency is an indispensable element of good and meaningful education. While the ideological debate about the shape and form of teacher professionalism is important, it is equally important to understand the dynamics of teacher agency and the factors that contribute to its promotion and enhancement. In this paper, we draw from a two-year study into teacher agency against the backdrop of large-scale educational reform – the implementation of Scotland’sCurriculum for Excellence– in order to explore these questions. We focus on teachers’ beliefs in order to get a sense of the individual and collective discourses that inform teachers’ perceptions, judgements and decision-making and that motivate and drive teachers’ action. While the research suggests that beliefs play an important role in teachers’ work, an apparent mismatch between teachers’ individual beliefs and values and wider institutional discourses and cultures, and a relative lack of a clear and robust professional vision of the purposes of education indicate that the promotion of teacher agency does not just rely on the beliefs that individual teachers bring to their practice, but also requires collective development and consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on agency literature, this paper demonstrates how teachers’ professional agency emerged when seemingly conflicting strategies were imposed on them in policy reform. Policy discourse is often linked to performance and accountability measures, which teachers respond to in a number of ways. Some education researchers identify tensions caused by such strategies; others warn that if outcomes are defined by mechanical techniques that are practised and imposed rather than constructed and negotiated then there is a danger that teachers will be re-shaped as technicians. A number of debates discuss de-professionalism, the erosion of status and new definitions of the role of the teacher. This ethnographic study examines how the implementation of policy requirements for writing student reports, stipulated by two levels of government, emerged through the practices of the teachers in an Australian non-government school. The analysis of the data is located within the policy in/as practice literature. The evidence illustrates that, despite the strategies of performance, accountability and control mechanisms in policy text, the presence of strong collegial relationships enabled the teachers to construct their professional agency by adaptation and adoption of policy requirements to fit some practices and reshape others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]