Electronic Theses and Dissertations Initiatives: A Survey of University Libraries in Nigeria

The study investigated the extent of adoption of electronic theses and dissertations in university libraries in Nigeria. Data collection for the study was via online questionnaire. The study revealed that digitization of theses and dissertations started between 1980 and 1995. It was found that only a few university libraries have embraced digitization of theses and dissertations in Nigeria. Benefits of electronic theses and dissertations were identified as improving university ranking and visibility, increasing access to the theses and dissertations, saving space in the library, enabling others link to the work with persistent URLs, preserving the work for future generations, and saving costs for students. Challenges such as unstable internet connectivity, lack of funding, irregular power supply, lack of information technology personnel, absence of electronic theses and dissertations submission policy, and copyright issues were identified. It is hoped that the study might provide insights useful for librarians planning to embark on the digitization of theses and dissertations project.     

“An inescapable network of mutuality”: Building Relationships of Solidarity in a First Grade Classroom

This case study of a first grade teacher enacting a social action curriculum is based on the understanding that schools can be sites where even young children can work toward the common good. This paper examines the way a first grade teacher (Paula Rogovin Rogovin, P. 2004. Why can't you behave? The teacher's guide to creative classroom management, K-3, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.  [Google Scholar]) and her students built solidarity with a community member and in turn adopted a new social concern as their own. We identify, detail, and analyze the building of ties of solidarity as a practice enacted within a social action curriculum.     

Humiliating ironies and dangerous dignities: a dialectic of school pushout

This article explores youth resistance to urban public high schools that both inadvertently and by design push out students before graduation. The author details how youth experience the institutional production of school non-completion as a dialectic of humiliating ironies and dangerous dignities, a dialectic of school pushout. The author describes how some youth position themselves in ways that are dangerous to the institution of schooling, and, at the same time, their own school careers.     

Investigating the use and effectiveness of diverse types of materials in the delivery and support of lab sessions for multimedia subjects and students

This research study explores the use of different lab material, investigating which types of materials contribute the most to the delivery and support of laboratory (lab) sessions to design, skill‐based and technical courses in higher education in the UK. A qualitative research methodology was employed for this investigation and included both key stakeholders in academia, including 75 students and 12 tutors. An investigation was also conducted tracking student activity on the university's e‐learning facility (U‐link). Our key findings indicate that overall electronic material is considered the most effective type of material for the delivery of a lab session. This is followed by print, video and lastly audio material according to student responses and video, print and audio material according to tutor responses. Student and tutor responses varied per individual module/subject area. Video material was regarded by students and tutors as the most effective type for the delivery of skill‐based lab sessions and generally for independent learning, and electronic material was regarded as the most effective type for the delivery of technical and design lab sessions. Lastly, student tracking revealed that the introduction of video lab material in two modules increased the average time spent by students on U‐link by 58% for the technical module and 97% for the skill‐based module respectively.     

Sociology of a scandal: the emergence of ‘FIFAgate’

This article examines the social forces underlying FIFAgate. Why do corrupt practices, which are often highly consolidated or even institutionalized, suddenly become scandalous? What is a scandal? Why did FIFA fall into crisis in 2015 and not before? To answer these questions, it is necessary to look at the sequence of thrusts and parries between all the parties involved. Our analysis embraces the notion that social processes are based on relationships in order to provide insights into why and how denunciations can lead to long-tolerated corrupt practices suddenly becoming compromising enough to force an organization’s leaders to implement measures that would have previously been unimaginable. We use multiple sources to examine the emergence of FIFAgate and the way FIFA overcame previous critical situations, describing how FIFA neutralized earlier allegations and developed a remarkable ‘resilience’ to scandal. Finally, we analyse the successive mobilizations whose domino effect led to the emergence of FIFAgate and the measures FIFA took to contain the scandal. Our research enabled us to draw up a new theoretical model for analysing corruption scandals.     

Alternative Ways of Financing Tertiary Education in Botswana

In developing countries, education is regarded as a public good that must be publicly provided. Due to the perceived positive correlation between education and development in development-hungry Africa, the education sector has, over the years, been receiving very generous budgetary allocations. Today, however, particularly post-2008, there are moves to re-define education as a private good, consequently, not deserving of public provision. As a result, there are persistent calls for alternative ways of providing education, particularly at tertiary levels. Similarly, in Botswana, there are developments that unmistakably suggest that the time is ripe for alternative ways of providing tertiary education, mainly, cost-sharing. To be sure, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development drastically cut sponsorships during the 2016/17 academic year. The general lesson from the Botswana case is that there is a need to continually interrogate the architecture of public expenditure. If problems are discovered, the architecture must be promptly reconfigured.     

The (hidden) injuries of NAPLAN: two standardised test events and the making of ‘at risk’ student subjects

Standardised testing regimes, including the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) in Australia, have impacted on relationships between and within schools, and on teachers’ work and on pedagogies. Previous analyses of the effects of NAPLAN have been generated outside of the test situation: frequently through attitudinal surveys and qualitative interviews. This article takes as its point of departure two intensely affective events associated with the NAPLAN test day itself. These events erupted in two qualitative studies of students’ schooling experiences: a study of students’ experiences of NAPLAN and a study of students’ experiences of student voice at school. We ask, after Deleuze and Guattari, What can a NAPLAN test do? Exploring the entangled corporeal (physical and embodied) and incorporeal (psychic and subjectivating) wounds effected in and through these events, we analyse the dynamic constitution and re-constitutions of ‘at risk’ categorisations. While the NAPLAN test is not claimed to cause physical and psychical injury, we argue that standardised test conditions, in these singular events, are inextricably entwined with the formation of particular students’ schooled subjectivities.     

‘It’s not right for boys to play with dolls’: young children constructing and policing gender during ‘free play’ in a South African classroom

This paper focuses on the ways in which five- to seven-year-old primary school children in a Black/African township in South Africa construct and experience ‘free play’ in the classroom. Findings highlight the gendered manner in which play is constructed and constantly policed by these young children during ‘free play’. By foregrounding the young children’s gendered constructions and experiences of ‘free play’, the paper challenges the common sense teacher perceptions and constructions of children’s play that suggest children have ‘free choice’. The paper reveals that play is far from a ‘free’ activity as it is heavily constrained by specific contextual gender norms and expectations which limit possibilities by reproducing polarised versions of gender and perpetuate gender inequalities. Implications focus on the ways in which teachers can work with children to challenge the boundaries of gender during ‘free play’.     

Novice teachers' perspectives on mentoring: The case of the Estonian induction year

This study explores Estonian novice teachers' perspectives on relationships with mentors and experiences of mentoring and mentors' tasks during their first year of teaching. The induction year with mentoring as one of the support structures was introduced into Estonian teacher education a few years ago. Experiences indicate that this is a valuable support, but there are areas of mentoring that need to be developed. The data are based on thematic interviews with sixteen novice teachers in the second half of their first year of teaching, i.e. the induction year. A content analysis revealed that the novice teachers experienced support for personal development and professional knowledge development, feedback, collegiality, reciprocity of the relationship, mentor availability and mutual trust as components of the mentor–mentee relationship. The study identified undeveloped potential in mentoring related to three main areas: 1) facilitation of reflection, 2) mentor training, and 3) integration of mentoring into the school community as a whole. The last area also includes matters pertaining to socialization and school leadership.