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Abstract: Scholars and advocates are at odds about how to achieve higher levels of child safety and permanency. Calls for change include the recent upEND focus on eradication of child welfare services to a radical refocusing of the present system towards prevention/early intervention. To clarify the implications of reform over abolition, we seek to portray a future in which the abolition of child welfare has occurred, in juxtaposition to maintaining four core elements of established child maltreatment programmes around the world: (1) receiving and responding to community signals about the risk to children; (2) assessment of need coupled with a proportionate response; (3) rights protections to ensure fairness when placement outside the family is required; and (4) procedures for accountability and quality improvement. For each of these functions, we outline abolitionist advocates' positions and implications for children and parents. Across these elements, we delineate how assigning these responsibilities to communities, as suggested by upEND, would likely (1) exaggerate racial and economic inequities and (2) create structural barriers that would increase harm to children. We suggest several evidence‐informed enhancements to practice, research and policy that would mitigate these inequities while also increasing safety and permanency.

The concept of cultural literacy as a dialogic social practice celebrates alternative perspectives. Navigating multiple perspectives in dialogue requires high 'tolerance of ambiguity' characterised by a positive, open and flexible attitude towards uncertainty. This article aims to explore how provisional language is used in classroom dialogue to enact tolerance of ambiguity and its associated democratic behaviours. It draws on data collected as part of a larger European-funded project in which children and young people used wordless texts as springboards to engage in discussions about cultural themes. We report findings from an in-depth qualitative analysis of two lessons (for 9-10-year-olds and 13-14-year-olds) chosen due to their use of provisional language and focus on multiple perspectives. We explore how the social element of provisional language enables students to enact key democratic behaviours as they learn to navigate multiple perspectives in small peer-group learning contexts. We find that teacher modelling and dual objectives in promoting such language are central to creating a safe dialogic space with inherent democratic potential that is not bound by solution-seeking goals. We consider the pedagogical implications of this by problematising the role of dialogue in enacting democratic behaviours through a critical exploration of the concept of 'voice'.

We used National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and Census data to examine Black-White and Hispanic-White disparities in reporting, substantiation, and out-of-home placement both descriptively from 2005-2019 and in multivariate models from 2007-2017. We also tracked contemporaneous social risk (e.g., child poverty) and child harm (e.g., infant mortality) disparities using non-child protective services (CPS) sources and compared them to CPS reporting rate disparities. Black-White CPS reporting disparities were lower than found in non-CPS risk and harm benchmarks. Consistent with the Hispanic paradox, Hispanic-White CPS reporting disparities were lower than risk disparities but similar to harm disparities. Descriptive and multivariate analyses of data from the past several years indicated that Black children were less likely to be substantiated or placed into out-of-home care following a report than White children. Hispanic children were slightly more likely to be substantiated or placed in out-of-home care than White children overall, but this difference disappeared in multivariate models. Available data provide no evidence that Black children were overreported relative to observed risks and harms reflected in non-CPS data. Reducing reporting rates among Black children will require addressing broader conditions associated with maltreatment.

Analysing the interaction between classroom dialogue and digital technology is challenging. Studies in this area typically draw on methods developed for the analysis of spoken interactions. This article reports on a new approach for analysing the enacted affordances of digital technology in classroom dialogue. Using examples from cross-country research investigating the Talkwall microblogging platform, involving 20 teachers and over 400 learners aged 11-13 in England and Norway, it outlines a rigorous process for data categorization -- and subsequent inductive and deductive analysis -- that enables holistic and multi-levelled examinations of the role of technology in supporting dialogue. This framework features three cyclical phases for the analysis of teacher -- and student-student interactions: (i) categorizing and organizing complex classroom data; (ii) coding spoken dialogue; (iii) analysing enacted affordances. The significance of this work lies in examining underpinning theory and illustrating a systematic new methodological approach to analysing learning and teaching in classrooms featuring dialogue and technology. This extends traditional notions of the affordances of digital technology by better taking into account the manner in which these are enacted in dialogic classrooms. Critical reflections, exemplifications and recommendations are provided.

Culture and heritage are plural and fluid, continually co-created through interaction between people. However, traditional monologic models of cultural literacy reflect a one-way transmission of static cultural knowledge. Using the context of a large European project and augmenting the work of Buber with models of literacy as social practice, in this article cultural literacy is reconceptualized as fundamentally dialogic. We argue that cultural literacy empowers intercultural dialogue, opening a dialogic space with inherent democratic potential. Considering implications for the classroom, we outline how a dialogic pedagogy can provide a suitable context for the development of young people's cultural literacy.

Isohydry (maintenance of plant water potential at the cost of carbon gain) and anisohydry (gas exchange maintenance at the cost of declining plant water status) make up two ends of a stomatal drought response strategy continuum. However, few studies have merged measures of stomatal regulation with xylem hydraulic safety strategies based on in situ field measurements. The goal of this study was to characterize the stomatal and xylem hydraulic safety strategies of woody species in the biodiverse Mediterranean-type ecosystem region of California. Measurements were conducted in situ when California was experiencing the most severe drought conditions in the past 1,200 years. We found coordination among stomatal, hydraulic, and standard leaf functional traits. For example, stem xylem vulnerability to cavitation (P50 ) was correlated with the water potential at stomatal closure (Pclose ); more resistant species had a more negative water potential at stomatal closure. The degree of isohydry-anisohydry, defined at Pclose -P50 , was correlated with the hydraulic safety margin across species; more isohydric species had a larger hydraulic safety margin. In addition, we report for the first time Pclose values below -10 MPa. Measuring these traits in a biodiverse region under exceptional drought conditions contributes to our understanding of plant drought responses.

Scholars and advocates are at odds about how to achieve higher levels of child safety and permanency. Calls for change include the recent upEND focus on eradication of child welfare services to a radical refocusing of the present system towards prevention/early intervention. To clarify the implications of reform over abolition, we seek to portray a future in which the abolition of child welfare has occurred, in juxtaposition to maintaining four core elements of established child maltreatment programmes around the world: (1) receiving and responding to community signals about the risk to children; (2) assessment of need coupled with a proportionate response; (3) rights protections to ensure fairness when placement outside the family is required; and (4) procedures for accountability and quality improvement. For each of these functions, we outline abolitionist advocates' positions and implications for children and parents. Across these elements, we delineate how assigning these responsibilities to communities, as suggested by upEND, would likely (1) exaggerate racial and economic inequities and (2) create structural barriers that would increase harm to children. We suggest several evidence‐informed enhancements to practice, research and policy that would mitigate these inequities while also increasing safety and permanency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study sought to illuminate the barriers service providers experience in delivering healing services to enhance father and child well‐being. Background: Manifestations of structural barriers, such as racism, mother‐centric practices, and disproportionate incarceration among Black and Brown fathers prevail. Little is known, however, about how providers describe barriers they encounter toward engaging fathers in services to equip them with the capacity to coparent effectively. Method: A convenience sample of providers (n = 24) representing a diverse array of child and family service systems responded to questions from a semistructured interview guide. Thematic analyses were conducted to describe how providers engage with fathers and their perceptions of barriers related to their ability to engage them in services. Results: Findings revealed three types of barriers, each representing a separate theme: micro (biases, colorblindness), societal (devaluation of fathers' role), and systemic (racism, mother‐centrism). Strategies to address barriers included implementing strengths‐based practices, creating spaces to engage in reflexivity, and investing in father‐centric programming. Most strategies involved modifying the micro context, conveying that future efforts should focus on developing procedures and policies that will enhance micro practices. Conclusion: This study captured the experiences of change agents and healers working with fathers and families. Their experiences illuminate obstacles they must contend with at the micro, societal, and systemic levels of practice. Implications: Providers indicated that fathers will not benefit from services unless organizations embrace father‐centric, strength‐based healing practices and allocate space to engage in reflexivity about biases and the impact of systemic racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has continued working toward tuberculosis (TB) elimination, aiming to reduce the overall TB burden by [approximately equal to] 90% to Universal or targeted postarrival screening [...]