Preparation for Social Service Leadership: Field Work and Virtual Organizations That Promote Critical Thinking in Administration Practice

This article examines how to prepare professional social workers for real-world nonprofit leadership roles. A pilot course assignment that incorporates a quasi-organization fieldwork simulation developed by the author is described. Development and application of critical thinking skills are reviewed, the course objective is explained, and methods and content that evolved during a three-semester trial are outlined. Student assignments and evaluation results indicate that a virtual asynchronous classroom experience is beneficial for students and faculty and that MSW administration students studying advanced generalist practice are an under-recognized potential source of nonprofit leadership.     

A Study of Factors Promoting Success in Computer Science Including Gender Differences

This study was conducted to determine factors that promote success in an introductory college computer science course and to determine what, if any, differences appear between genders on those factors. The model included math background, attribution for success/failure, self-efficacy, encouragement, comfort level in the course, work style preference, previous programming experience, previous non-programming computer experience, and gender as possible predictive factors for success in the computer science course. Subjects included 105 students enrolled in an introductory computer science course. The study revealed three predictive factors in the following order of importance: comfort level (with a positive influence), math background (with a positive influence), and attribution to luck (with a negative influence). No significant gender differences were found in these three factors. The study also revealed that both a formal class in programming (which had a positive correlation) and game playing (which had a negative correlation) were predictive of success. The study revealed a significant gender difference in game playing with males reporting more experience with playing games on the computer than females reported.     

Computer Club for Girls: The problem with seeing girls as the problem

This paper presents findings from an evaluation of the Computer Clubs for Girls, an initiative originally delivered in the South East of England, designed to encourage more girls to take up information technology (IT) courses and careers. By targeting girls aged 10–14, the club aimed to provide members with a ‘gender relevant’ experience of IT, tackling issues of access, confidence and negative attitudes about IT. The evaluation, conducted over four years, included the collection of quantitative and qualitative data from members and non-members of the clubs. It included a longitudinal component in order to assess the longer-term impacts of the club. The findings support the critical view that initiatives based on assumptions about the relationship between girls and IT misinterpret ‘the problem’ about female under-representation in IT, and are unlikely to have a significant or sustained impact on what remains an occupational and subject area divided by gender typing. The paper argues for an approach which challenges the social and cultural discourses that maintain this gender divide.     

“It had no voice to it”: Sydney Pollack's film translation of Isak Dinesen's out of Africa

Through a thematic analysis, this study investigates the rhetorical implications of Sydney Pollack's translation of Isak Dinesen's autobiographical texts. Specifically, the essay argues that Pollack's film uses strategies of transference, redefinition, antithesis, and displacement to renarrate Dinesen's writings, resulting in a depoliticized romantic adventure. These strategies marginalize, or mute altogether, pivotal elements of Dinesen's texts and life, including her complex voice and unconventional beliefs regarding the role of women, of race, and of colonialism. The consequence of Pollack's translation is a film narrative that honors patriarchal norms and cinematic conventions while fundamentally misrepresenting Dinesen and her life stories.     

Adapting the graduation efficiency index to provide a consistent basis for assessment of student progress towards graduation

Graduation efficiency is of top concern for institutions of higher education throughout the world. Increasingly, accountability metrics have come under scrutiny as policymakers seek to ensure public resources are efficiently used. Traditionally, higher education policymakers in the USA and Europe have used graduation rate as an accountability measure to assess a university’s efficient use of resources. This time-to-degree method, however, does not take into account the shift in student demographics from a traditional full-time student to the diverse group of students pursuing higher education through varied paths, including balancing work with reduced course loads, studying abroad, completing internships, among others. These changes suggest additional accountability measures are needed to accurately capture student progress as it relates to resource utilisation. This research adapts the Graduation Efficiency Index proposed by Gillmore and Hoffman (1997) to a cohort-based model to allow for evaluating retention policies implemented by cohorts to improve student progress.     

Attitudes about Advising among Criminal Justice Graduates: Ties to Educational and Departmental Outcomes

Research indicates that effective advising has important ramifications for students’ coursework as well as future careers, yet, very few studies have assessed how college graduates define their advising experiences, and whether the experience of “bad advising” truly results in negative outcomes for students and departments. To fill this void, attention is given to the way that graduates from one department defined their advising experiences. Results show that ineffective advising influenced learning outcomes and perceptions of the department. Implications for improving advising practices are suggested.     

Pressing Issues in College Counseling: A Survey of American College Counseling Association Members

The authors conducted a survey of members of the American College Counseling Association to ascertain the experiences and opinions of college counselors on several pressing issues within the college counseling profession. Survey results from 133 respondents indicated that counseling centers may benefit from increasing the number of group counseling interventions by increasing the multicultural competence of services provided, by implementing crisis/disaster mental health initiatives, and by more effectively consulting with other professionals on campus.     

‘Talking up and talking down’: the presentation of educational need in an age of inclusive education policy reforms

This article draws on data from an ethnographic study that begins with the experiences of educational professionals doing the ‘work’ of educationally supporting students with long-term health conditions in a paediatric health-care setting in Victoria, Australia. The study was conducted over the same period of time but separately from the Keeping Connected project, although it utilises some selected research data produced as part of that larger-scale project. Investigations concerning the inclusion of students with disabilities – including those with long-term health conditions – within mainstream schools continue to indicate that not only do they often have specific educational needs but also that significant structural barriers exist within education for young people and families. I argue that intersecting discourses of child development and child-centred education, along with education reforms promoting social inclusion, construct particular understandings of capability and needs which do not fully account for the complexities facing teachers, students and families.