Voices and Choices: Critical Information/Media Literacy and Behrman’s Practices

ABSTRACT

Studies on information and media literacy focus on describing activities and frameworks individually, and most of the time, connect within the field of library science. However, other frameworks and practices can be used. This case study presents the application of Behrman’s Critical Literacy Practices to information and media literacy to engage students to think critically about information within their field of study. The purpose of this research is to model the information behavior of education students through the perspective of constructivist learning. The study used a qualitative method with six upper-level undergraduate education majors. Activities that comprise practices and theories in both education and library sciences are presented to form a continuous exposure to critical thinking. Factors that influenced how students perceived the validity of information came from personal, educational, and societal factors. This research contributes to the ongoing discussion about critical thinking skills in undergraduate students, presenting a model that describes how practices from other fields can be used and incorporated with information and media literacy.     

Tomboys and girly-girls: embodied femininities in primary schools

This paper is about how 9–11-year-old children, particularly girls, co-construct tomboy and girly-girl identities as oppositional positions. The paper sits within a theoretical framework in which I understand individual and collective masculinities and femininities as ways of ‘doing man/woman’ or ‘doing boy/girl’ that are constructed within local communities of masculinity and femininity practice. Empirical data come from a one-year study of tomboy identities within two London primary schools. The paper explores the contrasting identities of tomboy and girly-girl, how they are constructed by the children, and how this changes as they approach puberty. The findings suggest that the oppositional construction of these identities makes it harder for girls to take up more flexible femininities, though it is possible to switch between tomboy and girly-girl identities at different times and places.     

Community-Engaged Teaching: A Project-Based Model

“Community engagement” provides a framework for curriculum development in environmental design residencies with elementary students.     

Strategic assets or second-class citizens? Teaching-focused faculty in business schools

Business schools have significantly increased the percentage of teaching-focused faculty (defined here as full-time faculty with doctorates not on the tenure track) over the last decades. However, many schools have not adequately updated their policies to support these faculty, leading some teaching-focused faculty to feel like second-class citizens. In this article, we provide a literature review of teaching-focused faculty hiring trends, challenges faced by teaching-focused faculty and the institutions that hire them, and proposed improvements to these challenges. Next, we draw from these best practices provided in the literature, as well as from first-person interviews, to share how business schools address these challenges. Specifically, we use interviews from decision makers (current and former deans) to examine how schools approach hiring and supporting teaching-focused faculty. Our study shows improved institutional support and acceptance of teaching-focused faculty over the past two decades, but with room for continued improvement. We conclude by arguing that TF faculty should be treated as strategic assets within schools in order to support collegiality, acceptance, and professional respect, while also enhancing students’ learning opportunities. In doing so, we hope to start a discussion of best practices that can better equip schools to provide institutional support to teaching-focused faculty.