Towards a research training curriculum: What, Why, How, Who?

Our purpose in this paper is to investigate the ways in which the work of research higher degree supervision is being reshaped from within and outside universities. Our interest is in the means by which new ‘content’ and ‘process’ knowledge — and thus a new set of pedagogical tasks and relationships — are being configured in the field of higher degree research. The outcomes of research training have traditionally been products of a one-on-one supervisory relationship, that is, academic apprentice-to-disciplinary mentor. This is especially the case in the fields of arts/humanities. Any ‘curriculum’ necessary to such a model has been both implicit and at the discretion of the disciplinary ‘master’.     

Pedagogic imaginings: negotiating pedagogies of care/protection in a risk society

Child care and protection have become key issues of concern for all teachers, and particularly for those teachers responsible for the care of young children. In this paper, we analyse focus group data on the topic of child care and protection produced by primary school teachers in Queensland, Australia. By drawing on concepts from cultural globalization, risk society and the sociology of childhood we outline the images, imaginary worlds and imagined professional identities constructed by a cohort of teachers. In particular, we pay attention to teachers' accounts of changes to everyday schooling practices in the context of new child protection legislation and policies. We argue that education and/or professional development in relation to child care/protection must involve critical engagement and contestation of the images, imaginary worlds and imagined collective professional identities of teachers and children constructed, and consumed often uncritically in these new times.     

Images of Injury: Graphic News Visuals’ Effects on Attitudes toward the Use of Unmanned Drones

In this study, sanitized coverage of the United States’ use of military drone strikes in foreign countries is pitted against more graphic news images in an experimental setting to determine effects on attitudes toward the use of U.S. military drones. In addition, multiple news exposures are tested to determine whether individuals can become emotionally inured to such coverage, even when images are more graphic. Key results find those who viewed graphic news visuals did not show evidence of desensitization after repeated viewing and expressed higher levels of concern regarding drone use but not reduced support for U.S. drone policy.     

Schoolchildren's revision tactics

Two studies are described which presented children with computer-based writing tasks. One compared observations of pairs and singletons within a classroom setting, with P5 children as subjects. The other video-recorded S2 learning difficulty pupils working in partnership or with a teacher and compared task performance under both dyad conditions. Focussing specifically upon evidence relating to revision during and following composition, both studies support a general observation in the field of writing research that children lack diagnostic strategies. However, there is some evidence that this finding is affected by writing task so that the problem may be in transfer, rather than lack, of skills. Developing useful teaching software to remedy this depends on an understanding of writing processes as writing competence develops; a programme for further work in this field is outlined.