The Role of Nostalgia in School Choice

This paper looks in some detail at the strength and diversity of factors which influence choice of a new school in the present generation, but which stem from a previous age. The stories presented to the researcher about the process of choosing show clearly that the 'domino' effect sometimes covers three generations, and that decisions made today reflect, but are not identical to, those made in the past. Simple reproduction cannot explain the diversity found here, while responding to 'consumers' and their influences from the past is likely to lead today's schools to conservatism and restorationism. These findings have implications for the study of the micro-politics of choice at the family level, and for the validity of any form of public choice theory based upon current performance indicators.     

Home-school Agreements: A true partnership?

From September 1999 all schools in England and Wales will be expected to have a 'home-school' agreement in place. The home-school agreement initiative has provoked considerable debate amongst and between politicians, educationalists, professional associations and parents' organisations. This article provides an analysis of this controversy . The first part places home-school agreements within the historical context of home-school relations. The second part discusses two key issues of 'enforceability' and 'partnership' that have informed much of the debate . The article concludes by suggesting that models of parents as 'problems', as 'partners' and as 'consumers' are all implicit within this recent initiative and it questions whether an acceptable balance between these models can be incorporated in the process of implementation.     

Problem-solving in collaborative game design practices: epistemic stance,affect, and engagement

ABSTRACT

This article explores children’s development of problem-solving practices through multimodal engagements in digital activities. The study is based on analyses of a video recorded peer group activity in which two children, within the context of a project on computational thinking using the software Scratch, collaboratively work to solve a coding problem. Drawing on work on epistemics-in-interaction and the cooperative and transformative organization of human action and knowledge, the analyses focus on the interactional strategies that the children use to establish, sustain, and develop knowledge within the peer group and the role of affect in the unfolding organization of actions. By analyzing the multimodal cultural production in children’s interaction with digital technologies, it is shown how children learn creative and artful skills, thus positioning them as consumers as well as producers of media.     

Practitioner Views on the Wider Benefits of Further Education

In this paper, the views of further education (FE) practitioners regarding the 'wider benefits' of FE are examined. The wider benefits are defined as encompassing both non-pecuniary private benefits (such as improved self-esteem, health and quality of life) and those impacting on society as a whole (such as community regeneration and cultural development). Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of questionnaires distributed to practitioners in 35 FE colleges in conjunction with the Learning and Skills Development Agency, the types of benefits arising from FE and the mechanisms involved in the production of those benefits are examined. Results indicate that esteem, self-efficacy and the development of social networks are important benefits of FE and that purposive social interaction is a major factor in producing social benefits. This is particularly the case in health and humanities subjects. The policy implications for FE are that a diverse, socially integrated and less administratively burdened sector is required if wider benefits are to be realised.     

Equity,quality and commitment in education: Interview with Luis C. Moll

Abstract

Luis C. Moll, Puerto Rican by birth, is one of the most prominent researchers in Latino education in the United States. His avant-garde works on Hispanic children's linguistic development and bilingual literacy are well known and renowned for their implications in the research on the impact of culture and education on human development. He is also one of the most notable advocates of Vygotskian theory in the Hispanic world, and his labor in this field has played an important role as a meeting point between United States' and Hispanic scholars. This interview examines his formation as a researcher: the intention is to provide an account of his educational and human trajectory, as well as to relate those projects he is involved in at the moment and that can be considered the result of such trajectory.     

Language and Tools for Networkers

Abstract

The network society has a major impact on knowledge systems, and in agricultural and rural development. It has changed relationships between actors such as farmers, extension workers, researchers, policy-makers, businessmen and consumers. These changes require different language, concepts and tools compared to the time that it was thought that science led the way and new findings had to be disseminated to target groups. Also the language of the market, talking about clients and knowledge producers, demand-driven systems and calculable results, is insufficient to describe what actually happens in innovative farmers’ networks or to guide knowledge workers in what to do for speeding up such processes. This article describes experiences from a large scale experiment in the Netherlands: the ‘Networks in Animal Husbandry’ programme (2004–2007). The basic idea was to ask farmers to come up with innovative ideas that could help the sector farther along the track of sustainable development, and then to assist them with scientific expertise. The facilitators were embedded in a learning community and provided with language, tools and methods that grew along the way. After a total of 120 networks and many peer consultation meetings with the facilitators, a huge number of experiences have been registered. Their work required a new generation of tools: as ‘free actors’ they had to learn how to navigate in unknown areas, recognise at any moment what was at stake and intervene appropriately. The FAN approach emerged: Free Actors in Networks.     

Results of an assessment to identify potential barriers to sustainable agriculture on American Indian reservations in the Western United States

Purpose: This paper reports the results of survey research conducted with tribal producers between 2011 and 2012 on 19 of the largest American Indian reservations in Idaho, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington. The purpose of the research was to identify potential barriers to sustainable agriculture on reservation lands. This article reports the results of this research in an effort to promote Extension professionals' understanding of these barriers, which may help to improve outreach programs on American Indian reservations. Understanding the obstacles to sustaining agriculture that American Indian tribes face may inform international agricultural outreach efforts to increase food security targeting indigenous and tribal peoples worldwide.

Design/Methodology/Approach: American Indian agricultural producers comprised the study group. Study objectives included: (1) identify agricultural and natural resource issues of greatest concern to a self-selected sample of tribal agricultural producers on reservation lands; (2) evaluate access to Extension and other US Department of Agriculture outreach and assistance programs; and (3) evaluate the quality of these programs in terms of their relativity to tribal needs.

Findings: Study results indicate that tribal agricultural producers surveyed ranked 29 of 39 agricultural and natural resource issues as a concern. Similarly, they rated access to and quality of outreach programs as fair. Further, tribal producers operating on reservation trust land rated issues more severely than did tribal producers operating on fee simple lands.

Practical Implications: Results of this research will help Extension and other outreach professionals to understand the barriers indigenous and tribal peoples face in sustaining agricultural operations, particularly tribal groups living on federally reserved trust lands, such as American Indians. An increased understanding can inform agricultural policy-makers and outreach professionals in improving programs designed to increase agricultural sustainability, improve food security, enhance economic well-being and improve quality of life of indigenous and tribal peoples worldwide.

Originality/Value: This research provides important information to agricultural policy-makers and Extension professionals striving to sustain agricultural productivity and enhance food security with indigenous and tribal peoples.     

The Market for Academic Knowledge: Its Historical Emergence and Inherent Tensions

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to the discussion about the marketisation of universities by providing a historical perspective. Going back to the time when the market for academic knowledge emerged, I argue that it was created through incorporating a number of inherent tensions that have been, and still are, shaping its development. I show how these tensions affect the self-definition of the producers and consumers in the market as well as their valuation of the products the market has to offer. They also influence the rules of exchange.     

If You Don't Know,Ask! Using Expert Knowledge to Determine What Content Is Needed in an Undergraduate Food Quality Management and Control Course

Quality management and quality control of food products are critical to producing food that is safe to consume and has consistent quality and sensory attributes. The extent to which undergraduate students are equipped with competencies in quality management/control, in theory, has a direct connection with their career potential to ensure food products and/or services meet the expectations of consumers and society. However, the most important quality management/control competencies for undergraduate food science students have yet to be identified. The objective of this study was to determine key knowledge and skills in quality management/control needed by food science graduates. A modified Delphi method was used to gather consensus on these knowledge and skills from experts in food quality management/control. Surveys were used to establish a framework of the most relevant quality management/control concepts for undergraduate food science students to learn and organize these concepts into core domains according to their relative importance. A course outline for teaching an undergraduate course on food quality management/control was developed that detailed relevant topics and depth of coverage for each of these topics. The needs assessment method used in this study to align course content with food industry's needs may be used for a wide variety of course topics.     

Politics of digital learning—Thinking education with Bernard Stiegler

Abstract

Bernard Stiegler is known as a leading philosopher of technics. He has developed an original interpretation of technics as an externalized epiphylogenetic memory that (1) remembers in the place of the human being, who appears therefore as a forgetful being and (2) is collective and constitutes a technological community, that is different from any ethnical-political community. Stiegler has also examined the social and political consequences of contemporary technology. Technics are not neutral. Contemporary digital technologies claim to inform but more fundamentally they produce pulsions in a way that is destructive to psychic and collective individuation and leads to a generalized proletarianization, where the problem is not biopower or capitalism but lack of attention and desire. Can the digital world become a new public space? Stiegler is quite pessimistic, but in principle, to some extent, it is possible to seize and convert ‘the means of memory production.’ Stiegler's insights are invaluable in the task of evaluating new learning technologies, because he analyzes political community from the double point of view of technology, and of the care of younger generations. In this article, I present Stiegler's philosophical theory and show how it can be applied to education and digital learning environments.     

The rise of the transnational capitalist class and World Bank 'aid' for higher education

This article looks at globalisation as a process of replacement of the global political order of nation states with the global economic order of transnational corporations. It is argued that this process carries far-reaching consequences, in which a growing number of spheres, including education, are subjected to the interests of the global economic order. Under the disguise of global economic development activities the new world system strives towards maximising the short-term profits of the transnational capitalist class. Following Sklair's global systems theory, this article looks at the World Bank as a transnational organisation. Based on recent World Bank higher education reform loan projects in Eastern Europe, it is argued that the primary outcome of the World Bank loan projects is the redistribution of the resources of the so-called 'recipient countries' to the transnational capitalist class.     

Lesbian and Gay Issues in the Wake of HIV and AIDS

Having provided an historical review of the development of theories of personality, this paper discusses the significant research that has been undertaken in this area. One example is Myers' work which is important both in terms of the original research and of the production of a questionnaire (type indicator) which has been used in over 40 countries. Using Jung's theory of psychological types and the more recent work of David Keirsey on temperaments, Patricia Hedges argues that there will be cases where a mismatch between teacher and pupil temperament will exist, with potentially serious consequences. The final section introduces a programme designed to increase self-understanding, heighten awareness and ultimately lead to more satisfactory relationships and to more effective learning and teaching.     

The role of public extension in introducing environment-friendly farming methods in Turkey

Abstract

Public good will towards the investment in research and extension on environment-friendly production practices is the justification for publicly funded extension services. Although there are major environmental problems associated with agricultural production in Turkey, the present role of public extension service to control and reduce adverse environmental effects is minimal.

The short term goal of the publicly funded agricultural extension is to establish a control and enforcement system which will ensure that the current production practices cause as little harm as possible to the environment. In the long term, however, publicly provided investment in research and extension on sustainable agricultural systems is necessary. The investments should aim towards ensuring a wholesome food supply for the community whilst maintaining the quality of the environment and natural resources.     

Re-thinking Theory and Practice in the Preservice Teacher Education Classroom: Teaching to learn from learning to teach

This paper addresses the relationship between theory and practice in preservice teacher education. Using Giroux's (1994) distinction between a "pedagogy of theory" and a "pedagogy of theorizing", it explores the difference between prospective teachers learning about education in teacher preparation courses and learning from it by critically reading the educative process in their own preservice education classrooms. Challenging the idea that preservice education is merely preparation for a practicum conducted elsewhere and in the future, this paper proposes that teacher education classrooms become practicum environment in-and-of-themselves, where practice gets theorized and theory is not only considered for practice but is indeed practiced as it interrogates practice.     

Assessment of Adoption Gaps in Management of Aflatoxin Contamination of Groundnut (Arachis Hypogaea L.)

Abstract

One of the major impediments for diversification of groundnut (Arachis Hypogaea L.) as food crop is aflatoxin contamination. The study was conducted with an objective to assess the adoption gaps in aflatoxin management practices of groundnut (AMPG) and the farmer's characteristics influencing these gaps. The study used an expost-facto research design and multi-stage random sampling. The data were collected from 180 respondents through interview schedule. For measuring adoption gap, knowledge of AMPG and perception of groundnut quality suitable scales were developed. The data were subjected to multiple regression analysis to know the characteristics, which influenced the adoption gaps in AMPG. The majority of farmers were in high adoption gap category, as most of the farmers had not adopted the harvest and post-harvest management practices. Farmers' characteristics such as knowledge, market orientation and innovativeness influenced the adoption gap significantly. These three variables put together explained 58% of variation in adoption gap. Based on the results, it is suggested to formulate strategies to increase the knowledge of farmers through various extension approaches. If the knowledge on AMPG is improved the adoption gaps can be reduced. The maiden research effort, shed light on the socio-economic dimensions of aflatoxin contamination and constraints for aflatoxin management at farmers' level. The study has significance for the policy makers, extension departments and groundnut farmers for production of quality groundnut.     

Socially just pedagogies in changing times

This article reports on Australian research that developed the concept of 'productive pedagogies', a model that is deemed to be socially just and appropriate for the contemporary post-modern globalised world. The model extends the modernist one of 'authentic pedagogy' developed in the USA and sits as a counter to the inauthentic post-modernist model of pedagogy framed by neo-liberal and new public management forms of accountability in some educational systems. The article begins from the assumption that the quality of pedagogies is a social justice issue and documents the lack of intellectual demand, connectedness and working with difference in the pedagogies mapped in the 1000 classrooms observed, while also noting the high degree of social support teachers offered students. These lacks can be seen to reproduce inequalities through schooling, rather than challenge them. Teacher care and support are necessary, but not sufficient for socially just pedagogies, which also need to be backed by redistributive socially just policies and some professional trust of teachers.     

From Students to Consumers: reflections on the marketisation of Portuguese higher education

A progressive attempt to replace traditional public administration values and concepts by others that are closer to private management can be observed in the replacement of the service user concept by that of consumer or client. This redefinition's more implicit or explicit intent is to increase consumers'/clients' status, their capacity to choose and make rational choices in the market, and, ultimately, to ensure that organisations fulfil their needs. Influenced by this tendency, higher education institutions (HEIs) also started to see students as clients or consumers and to influence their choices by trying to define HE demand. This is evident in the shift in their external communication strategies: ‘institutional information’, based on HEIs' prestige, is being progressively replaced by ‘marketed information’, based on economic consumer logic. In trying to understand how students are perceived by Portuguese HEIs, we undertook qualitative research based on the content analysis of undergraduate degrees' announcements in newspapers. Major findings evidence that their content: (1) can be classified in a continuum bounded by two poles: the use of ‘institutional information’ and the use of ‘marketed information’; (2) show the presence of a social representation of students as clients or consumers; (3) seems related to HEIs' nature (public vs. private), positioning in the HE system (universities and polytechnics) and ‘symbolic capital’ (traditional vs. new institutions).     

Poststructuralist theory in practice: Working with 'behaviourally disturbed' children

In this paper we enter into the debate about the place of poststructuralist theorising and its relation to educational and psychological practices. We argue against a definition of poststructuralist theory as generating inaction and as antithetical to concepts such as ''agency'' and ''choice''. We suggest that poststructuralist theory may well have powerful implications for practice and we illustrate this through a close examination of practices in regular schools and in a school for ''behaviourally disturbed'' children. We show that through making the constitutive force of discourse visible, it is possible to work with students in ways that make them recognisable as legitimate students.     

Necessary,But Not Sufficient: Critiquing the Role of Information and Communication Technology in Putting Knowledge into Use

Abstract

Purpose: This article reviews the experience of ICT applications as a tool for putting research derived knowledge into use for innovation in South Asia.

Design/methodology/approach: The article uses the contemporary understanding of communication and innovation in reviewing the experience of ICTs in putting new knowledge into use in South Asia.

Findings: The findings from this study suggest that ICTs in general have not contributed effectively to the challenge of putting new knowledge into use as they are mostly used to support traditional communication tasks — such as information dissemination and training. The article argues that this under-utilisation of the potential of ICTs could be due to: a lack of appreciation of the new communication-intermediation tasks required for innovation, underestimation of the roles of intermediaries and their capacities for innovation and lack of networks needed for communities to make use of the information provided through ICTs.

Practical implications: Although the understanding of communication, innovation and extension has changed substantially in the past two decades, there is still a big gap between theory and practice. This article contends that this gap needs to be bridged if ICTs are to effectively contribute to putting new knowledge into use.

Originality/value: The article manifests the necessity for ICT based initiatives to be embedded into the renewed understanding of communication and innovation and it moves ICT related debates from merely a success story to a pragmatic world of communication and innovation process.     

历史时期普洱茶市场发展的主要影响因素

普洱茶历史悠久,地位重要。它之所以能从地方名茶日益成为世界名茶,从西南一隅逐渐走向全国乃至世界,其中有三个重要原因,即:茶叶生产为茶叶市场孕育提供了物质保障;茶叶消费需求推动了茶叶市场发育;茶叶市场体系构建成为茶叶生产与消费有机纽带。正是依靠这三大支撑因素,普洱茶市场发展的关键问题基本得以解决。研究历史时期普洱茶市场发展的主要影响因素,为今天发展普洱茶经济,振兴普洱茶产业提供了有益启示,这就是:从发展普洱茶生产、拉动普洱茶消费、培育普洱茶市场三个方面入手,整体推动普洱茶产业升级换代,才能真正实现普洱茶经济的健康持续发展。