Cultural strangers and educational change: The OECD Report Investment in Education and Irish Educational Policy

This paper treats the OECD report on Irish education Investment in Education published in 1965 as a ‘cultural stranger’ and assesses its contribution to Irish educational policy up to the present. Widely regarded as a major modernizing force in Irish society, this report is perceived to have confronted, penetrated, and changed the insular paradigms governing Irish educational policy, in particular replacing the personal development with the human capital paradigm as the institutional rationale for education. The influence of Investment in Education is situated within the economic reconstruction that commenced in the late 1950s, and the lack of contestation and the role of interest groups within the state apparatus and beyond are analysed. The expansion of the human capital paradigm to incorporate commercial, vocational, and market interpretations of schooling and the impact of these on the structuration of consciousness within the educational policy‐making community are described. The conclusion locates these developments in Irish education within their comparative context.     

Sleep restriction and degraded reaction-time performance in Figaro solo sailing races

Abstract

In solo offshore sailing races like those of the Solitaire du Figaro, sleep must be obtained in multiple short bouts to maintain competitive performance and safety. Little is known about the amount of sleep restriction experienced at sea and the effects that fatigue from sleep loss have on sailors’ performance. Therefore, we assessed sleep in sailors of yachts in the Figaro 2 Beneteau class during races and compared response times on a serial simple reaction-time test before and after races. Twelve men (professional sailors) recorded their sleep and measured their response times during one of the three single-handed races of 150, 300 and 350 nautical miles (nominally 24–50 h in duration). Total estimated sleep duration at sea indicated considerable sleep insufficiency. Response times were slower after races than before. The results suggest that professional sailors incur severe sleep loss and demonstrate marked performance impairment when competing in one- to two-day solo sailing races. Competitive performance could be improved by actively managing sleep during solo offshore sailing races.     

Word reading and word spelling in French adult literacy students: the relationship with oral language skills

We analysed word reading and spelling in French adults with low levels of literacy (A‐IL). As well as examining phonological and lexical processes, we explored the relationship between literacy and oral language skills. Fifty‐two adult literacy students were compared with reading level‐matched pupils in Years 1–3 of primary school on reading tasks (pseudoword reading, word reading, text comprehension), spelling tasks (pseudoword spelling, text dictation) and oral language tasks. A‐IL scored the same as children on word reading and spelling but less well on pseudoword reading and spelling. They also produced fewer phonologically acceptable errors in the dictation. Regarding oral language skills, as a group A‐IL encountered greater difficulty in phonology than in morphosyntax and semantics, and correlations revealed strong relationships between literacy levels and oral skills, particularly in the domain of phonology. Within their group, however, A‐IL displayed several distinct language profiles. These could reflect different risk factors leading to functional illiteracy and are discussed regarding the cognitive and environmental causes of impaired reading acquisition.     

The Media Audience: A Brief Biography—Stages of Growth or Paradigm Change?

The concept of audience was widely adapted from its earlier origins in public spectacles and performance to apply to the new circumstances of mass media reception in the early 20th century, and especially to the public for film and broadcasting. It could even be applied more generally to include print media. The then novel usage of the term was a component in the larger paradigm of mass communications that in turn rested on certain preconceptions about its ‘mass’ character. These preconceptions have been challenged by subsequent research and theory. More recently, however, the ongoing transformation of the means of communication may have rendered the whole mass communication paradigm itself obsolescent, and with it the concept of a mass audience. In this article it is argued that paradigmatic change in ideas about the audience may be less due to a shift in technology than to the more fundamental theoretical changes of the intervening period.     

General Media

FUNDAMENTALS OF ADVERTISING RESEARCH by Alan D. Fletcher and Thomas A. Bowers (Columbus, Ohio: Grid, 1983 2nd ed.)

THE LIBRARY OP CONGRESS by Charles Goodrum and Helen Dalrymple (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1982---$25.00/10.95)

THE PERSONAL COMPUTER BOOK and THE PERSONAL COMPUTER IN BUSINESS BOOK, both by Peter A. McWilliams (Prelude Press, Box 69773, Los Angeles, CA 90069/distribution by Ballantine Books---$9.95 each, paper)     

The Irish Christian Brothers and the National Board of Education: Challenging the Myths

For close to 170 years the general consensus from historians has been that Edmund Rice, who founded the Irish Christian Brothers in 1802, was an unenthusiastic applicant to the National Board of Education in Ireland in 1832 and later withdrew his schools because he believed his education was incompatible with the philosophy underpinning the conduct of Board schools. Three myths were created and have circulated over many years to uphold and sustain a pretence that this was the situation which prevailed. These myths are that the Christian Brothers were reluctant participants with the Board; that the Board’s system of education was inimical to the Brothers; and that the Christian Brothers left the Board as a matter of principle. This paper contests these myths and argues that they made virtue of an internal rift that dramatically divided the Christian Brothers politically for over a century. This was a rift that sidelined Edmund Rice and those who supported him.