Mediating Voices: Community Participation in the Design of E-Enabled Community Care Services

In the United Kingdom, information and communication technologies are being used to e-enable multiagency community services for children. Public policy advocates that practitioners as well as users should be involved in the shaping of services including the information systems used in their delivery. This article discusses how a group of social and computer scientists developed the social formation methodology to facilitate nonexpert community participation in the design of e-enabled community care services. The longitudinal study adapts qualitative methods to understand community welfare and to foster participation in the design of communication systems. By exploring the perspectives of welfare practitioners and families, the importance of situated and mediated conversations in community care is identified. The facilitative conversation approach of the study then brings these community perspectives, as well as ICT perspectives, into design processes of e-enabled services.     

Realism in the Sociology of Education: 'Explaining' social differences in attainment

The search for scientific explanation in sociology is an attempt to make statements about the causal mechanisms of social structures. The relationship between techniques of quantitative analysis and explanatory models of the association between social class and educational success, with particular reference to the work of Jencks, Boudon, and Bourdieu, are examined in the context of empirical data from the New Zealand 'Progress at School' project. The position of statistical model-building and non-quantitative studies in a realist sociology of education are explored in an examination of the central problem of the sociology of education: the causes of social differences in educational attainment.     

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE: Vygotskian Perspectives in Early Childhood Education: Translating Ideas into Classroom Practice

This special topic issue of Early Education and Development is devoted to Vygotskian and/or CHAT (Cultural Historical Activity Theory) perspectives on early childhood education. Although the ideas of Soviet developmental/educational psychologist, Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), and those of his followers, are now central theoretical grounding within the field of early childhood education (Berk & Winsler, 1995; Bodrova & Leong, 1996; Bredekamp & Copple, 1997), it is still often a challenge understanding and implementing Vygotskian and neo- Vygotskian ideas in early childhood classrooms. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many of the central constructs within this tradition (i.e., scaffolding, zone of proximal development...) have often been conceptualized and empirically examined at the one-on-one, adult-child level, rather than at the level of classroom processes. Or perhaps the inherent conceptual and methodological complexities of socio-cultural, historical, and semiotic analyses become an obstacle to effective integration of scholarship and practice in this area. Indeed, Vygotskian theory forces us to think about not only the child and his or her current activities, but also about the child's history of previous experiences, the cultural backdrop and meaning that such activities have for the child, the social context in which that particular activity occurs in the classroom, the structure of the larger classroom context and the opportunities afforded by the available tools and cultural artifacts to be found there, and the way that teachers and other children "mediate" children's experiences in the classroom via social interaction and language use. Clearly, it is difficult in both theory and practice to think about and coordinate these multiple levels, but it is certainly worth the time and effort to do so. The goal of this special issue was to compile a selection of both empirical and theoretical papers that would help toward that effort and make a significant contribution to advancing early childhood policy, practice, and applied developmental science by both informing, and learning from, practice in early childhood settings. Although the subtitle for this issue, "Translating Ideas into Classroom Practice," might appear to suggest the existence of a unidirectional path from theory to practice, the Vygotskian dialectical perspective and contemporary applied developmental science in general views theory and practice as being inseparable, intimately intertwined, with each informing the other and both evolving dynamically together over time.     

Evidence on the Performance of Canada/Europe Co-productions in Television and Film

International co-production has become an increasingly important mode for television programs and film. In this paper we report the results of a survey on partner perceptions of performance in Canada/Europe co-productions. In particular we examine whether expectations that the general experience is positive and that Canadian and European partners have similar assessments of the level of performance, are justified. Our survey evidence does support the hypothesis that in total the experience is positive. However, it appears this is only the case because a good creative artistic performance more than outweighs a less than satisfactory total project recoupment. The hypothesis that Canadian and European partners have similar perceptions of performance is not borne out. Generally, Canadian partners seem more satisfied than European, particularly French.     

The rise and fall of choice in Richmond, California

The public school choice plan implemented in Richmond, California in 1987 through 1990 received much favorable publicity at the time, but in 1991 the school district filed for bankruptcy. This paper describes the choice plan and the events leading up to the financial collapse. It also presents trend data on student absenteeism, dropout rates, test scores and school desegregation. There is no evidence that the choice plan produced any improvement in these outcomes. At the same time, the district's financial failure is not necessarily attributable to the choice plan itself, but rather to the imprudent manner in which it was implemented.     

Statistics ofRILM: Répertoire International de Littéerature Musicale

Commonly referred to asRILM Abstracts of Music Literature orRILM, theRILM database is published in printed, online, and CD-ROM formats. This international musicological bibliography of scholarly writings in 202 languages on music and related disciplines is classified by topic and includes original-language titles; title translations in English; full bibliographic information; abstracts in English; author, journal, and subject indexes; and a thesaurus.