Legal Publishing: Establishing Context through the Lens of Disruptive Innovation

ABSTRACT

As legal research tools come and go, an understanding of the continuing changes in legal publishing can provide a better understanding of those developments. One way in which law librarians can gain insight into the dynamic legal publishing world is by looking through the lens created by the innovative disruption model as proposed by Clayton Christensen almost 20 years ago. This article suggests that the Christensen model can provide valuable context to what is happening and may happen in legal publishing in the future.     

Measuring perceived competence and social acceptance in children with cerebral palsy

The Dutch Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Children with Cerebral Palsy was translated and administered to an English sample. This scale was developed to assess the child's perception on cognitive, physical and social domains. Thirty-two children, aged 4 to 9 years, were tested twice. The results indicate good test/retest reliability and good internal consistency. The results on the intercorrelations between the four sub-scales supported internal validity of the pictorial scale. It is concluded that the pictorial scale for young children with cerebral palsy is a reliable and valid instrument for determining the perception of children with cerebral palsy, and application in clinical and class settings is discussed.     

From City Technology Colleges to Sponsored Grant-maintained Schools

During the 18 years of Conservative government in Britain, only two attempts were made to stimulate the 'supply side' of the quasi-market of schools. These were the introduction of City Technology Colleges and sponsored grant-maintained schools. This paper draws comparisons between the two initiatives. It is shown that, while the CTCs were largely a 'top down' policy, and the sponsored grant-maintained schools might be seen as the result of 'grass roots' pressure group activity, there were many similarities between the two programmes. In practice, both initiatives stalled at just 15 schools, but it is argued that their significance is far greater than their numerical strength would indicate. Both can be seen as examples of increased privatisation and selection, and it is shown that what may develop from them is a greatly changed education system.     

Educational Contestability

ABSTRACT The paper considers the implications of the concept of the essential contestability of education for the professional independence of teachers. Its conclusion is that liberal educational ideas provide the strongest theoretical framework for such independence, with child-centred ideas a not very close second. Potential dangers to teachers' professional autonomy from transcendentalist, instrumentalist and reconstructionist theories of education are highlighted. The paper does not endorse unlimited contestability or unrestricted professional independence for teachers and outlines conditions, related to the Paradox of Freedom, in which restrictions are fully justifiable. However, it concludes that in contemporary liberal-democratic societies constraints on educational contestability should be as minimal as possible.     

A Policy Adventure: Sponsored grant-maintained schools

This paper examines the implementation of that part of the 1993 Education Act for England and Wales that concerned sponsored grant-maintained schools. The 1993 Education Act for England and Wales introduced changes that allowed the expansion of the supply side of the quasi-market of schools. As a result of that Act, since April 1994, it has been possible for groups of parents or independent sponsors to apply to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment in England or the Secretary of State for Wales to establish their own grant-maintained schools. Additionally, existing faith-based or other private schools could apply to become re-established as grant-maintained schools. This paper gives an account of the results of this 'policy adventure', and suggests that insights can be gained about the nature of the policy process through a consideration of 'policy as text' and 'policy as discourse'.     

Holocaust Education in Ontario High Schools: An antidote to racism?

The premise underpinning this article is that if the Holocaust is taught well it can help to promote anti-racist goals. The need to realise the Holocaust's anti-racist potential is self-evident, but is arguably greatest where conventional anti-racism (aimed at enhancing the life chances of visible minorities) is under threat. Such a situation currently obtains in Ontario, where the right wing Progressive Conservative party was elected to office in June 1995. The uncertain future of anti-racism in the province provides the background to this article. It examines the teaching of the Holocaust in Ontario high schools and reports the findings of a survey carried out among history staff in May 1998. Various ways are suggested in which the teachers involved (and others elsewhere) might alter their approach to the Holocaust in order to strengthen its contribution to anti-racist education.