Librarians Before Congress: Advocacy and Identity

This article explores the connection between congressional testimony and political identity for libraries. Library testimony highlights the ways in which libraries are hybrid, public/private institutions. Thus in some areas (such as library funding or intellectual property), libraries are like private associations: They testify to protect interests that are library specific. In other areas (such as government information), libraries are more like governmental agencies: They testify as a partner and stakeholder in specific government programs, policies, and benefits. And in yet other areas (such as privacy), libraries are more like issue-oriented advocacy groups: They testify to engage their peers and patrons while organizing these constituencies to effectively advocate for public goods.     

Preparing children for reading

Most practical in a situation where one-to-one relationships thrive, this constructive method of preparing children for reading will be of special interest to family day care providers, caregivers in infant and other centers with low caregiver/child ratios, and parents.Gerard Giordano is Associate Professor of Reading Education and Coordinator of Reading Programs at New Mexico State University's College of Education. He can be reached at the College, Box 3AC, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003.     

Foreign Language Command: definition and description

The authors give a critical survey of the model of communicative competence underlying van Ek's Scope and Levels, written for the Council of Europe as a follow‐up of The Threshold Level of 1975‐76. Although generally in favour of van Ek's new approach, the authors find that van Ek's model lacks breadth of definition of strategic competence. This leads to some unclarity and confusion in van Ek's proposals. The authors also regret that van Ek does not allot a greater role to compensatory strategies in the assessment of levels of language command.

     

Evaluating Measures of Optimism and Sport Confidence

The psychometric properties of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), the Sport Confidence Inventory (SCI), and the Carolina SCI (CSCI) were examined in a study involving 260 athletes. The study aimed to test the dimensional structure, convergent and divergent validity, and invariance over competition level of scores generated by these instruments. Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) supported the measurement models for the SCI and CSCI but favoured a two-dimensional model for the LOT-R. ESEM analyses of the total pool of 33 items indicated satisfactory divergent validity among these optimism and sport confidence measures with the only overlap occurring between the LOT-R and CSCI measures of optimism. The SCI discriminated among athletes participating at different competitive levels and emerged as the most suitable instrument for measuring individual differences in sport confidence. The CSCI emerged as a better measure of optimism in a sporting context than the more general LOT-R.     

Pedagogy,empowerment and discipline: comparative perspectives of novice teachers in England and Turkey reflecting on ‘the other’

This article discusses the views of Turkish and British novice teachers on pedagogy and pedagogical relationships with school students when confronted with the pedagogical practices of the ‘Other’ in particular policy contexts. Experiences of those practices were gained by novice teachers during an exchange visit for British and Turkish university students in the period 2008–2009. Data was collected through questionnaires and focus group interviews. Findings suggest that Turkish and British novice teachers initially constructed the ‘Other’ as very different from themselves. The views of members of both groups were heavily influenced by the cultural contexts in which they trained and worked. British novice teachers tended to take as axiomatic constructivist and inclusive approaches to pedagogy and the relevance to successful pedagogy of listening to students’ voices. Turkish novice teachers questioned both, many seeing control and dissemination of knowledge as central to pedagogy and student teacher relationships.