Recent literature on government information

The purpose of this column is to provide government information scholars and students with a broad overview of recent publications about government information from the literature of librarianship, archives, information technology management, public policy and law. Given the volume of literature produced in this field, a columnist cannot claim comprehensive coverage. This column seeks to provide a broad, representative survey of literature that illustrates significant trends in the field.Entries were identified through searches of bibliographic databases such as Library Literature, PAIS International, Ebsco Academic Elite, The Index to Legal Periodicals and Books, Science Direct, Westlaw's JLR database, WorldCat, and from manual scans of journals, newsletters, and Internet sites. Citations are to monographs and serials, journal and periodical articles, books, newsletters, and Internet sites. Coverage for this edition of the column includes items from 2002 and 2003, with a smattering of 2001 items that have come to my attention since the last installment of this column. Each citation is listed once under its primary topic and annotated if its content cannot be adequately determined from the title. Book reviews and Internet site reviews are generally excluded.Contributions and suggestions for the next column may be addressed to the column editor at the address below.Material for this column is grouped into the following categories: Freedom of Information/Secrecy, E-Gov/Technology, Archives/Libraries/History, Government Printing Office, Federal, State/Local, and International.     

Absent from School: Educational Policy and Comprehensive Reform

State and federal policy constitutes a significant component of the educational environment. School leaders stand at the intersection of policy and practice in attempting to implement systemic school reform. This report begins with a brief overview of (1) recent federal policy alignment initiatives, (2) the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) grants program, and (3) the general policy environment in North Carolina. We then draw on evaluation data from North Carolina schools receiving CSRD grants to suggest that initial school efforts are marked by two significant absences, chiefly, the absence of comprehensive design perspectives to guide improvement efforts and the absence of critical analysis during application of improvement models. We close by offering suggestions for school leaders engaged in systemic reform efforts.     

Capturing urban student voices in the creation of a science mini‐documentary

It has been widely proposed that student voices should play a crucial role in designing and implementing curriculum and instruction that promote students' engagement in science learning. In this study we examined the voices of two seventh grade boys from a low‐income urban community as they worked together in an after‐school program to create a student‐directed video documentary about science. Our analysis showed that these students used their voices to construct identities that they cared about in school, by reconstructing some aspects of their school identity that did not match who they aspired to be, as well as by gaining new resources to enact their desired identities. The examples provided demonstrate that integrating student voice in a science project can make participation in science a valuable tool in students' identity formation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 667–694, 2006     

Towards Critical Justice: Exploring Intersectionality in Community-based STEM-rich Making with Youth from Non-dominant Communities

We investigated how community ethnography as a pedagogy approach to STEM-rich making supported youth makers from two low-income urban communities engaged in sustained STEM-rich making towards making a difference in their communities. Data is drawn from two-year long ethnographic data across two community-based, youth making programs. We highlight two cases. Case # 1 focuses on one African American girl's making endeavors across one school year. Case # 2 looks at how two youth engaged in critical sense-making with regards to the currently available how-to making resources they could locate online. We discuss how these pedagogical moves supported the youth in making towards a more just future in ways that addressed intersecting scales of injustice.     

早安

[1] 早安! 我们每次都会把这句话用在恰当的时候吗? 我对女儿说这句话, 对员工说这句话, 甚至对邮递员, 我也说这句话。我想你会说这句话只是一天开始时人们相互间的一种问候, 是活跃气氛的一种寒暄, 或者对大多数——至少对部分人来说只是一种习惯和一种礼貌。对我而言,“早安”有着与大多数人完全不同的含意。我不记得我多少次说过这句话, 也不记得在什么特别的时刻说过这句话, 但是有一次我却铭刻在心!