The power of one? Conditions which challenge managerial professional development practices

This paper draws upon Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital and field to better understand and appreciate the conditions which encouraged the productive professional development (PD) practices of one very capable teacher working in a secondary school in the British Midlands. Rather than celebrating this teacher's practices and perspective as evidence of the capacity of the heroic individual to overcome sometimes adverse circumstances, this paper reveals how the experiences of this teacher can be understood as an instance of the socially situated self, engaged by and engaging in an alternative politics to that associated with more managerial conceptions of teacher learning. This research calls for a cautious approach to those renderings of educational practice which construe the creative potential of the habitus, without sufficient regard for the actual conditions which contribute towards this creativity. In this way, this paper is presented not as an example of how one teacher overcame significant barriers to substantive learning practices – as a morality tale for other, individual educators to emulate – but as a provocation to suggest how some teachers' access to professional/community resources helps them sustain a clear focus on substantive learning.     

Medical students' reactions to anatomic dissection and the phenomenon of cadaver naming

The teaching of gross anatomy has, for centuries, relied on the dissection of human cadavers, and this formative experience is known to evoke strong emotional responses. The authors hypothesized that the phenomenon of cadaver naming is a coping mechanism used by medical students and that it correlates with other attitudes about dissection and body donation. The authors developed a 33‐question electronic survey to which 1,156 medical students at 12 medical schools in the United States voluntarily responded (November 2011–March 2012). They also surveyed course directors from each institution regarding their curricula and their observations of students' coping mechanisms. The majority of students (574, 67.8%) named their cadaver. Students most commonly cited the cadaver's age as the reason they chose a particular name for the cadaver. A minority of the students who did not name the cadaver reported finding the practice of naming disrespectful. Almost all students indicated that they would have liked to know more about their donor, particularly his or her medical history. Finally, students who knew the birth name of the donor used it less frequently than predicted. The authors found that the practice of naming cadavers is extremely prevalent among medical students and that inventive naming serves as a beneficial coping mechanism. The authors suggest that developing a method of providing students with more information about their cadaver while protecting the anonymity of the donor and family would be useful. Anat Sci Educ 7: 169–180. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

The Florida State Libraries Resource Sharing Initiative: Unity Among a Disparate Group

This article discusses the development of a new resource sharing program within the Florida State University Libraries called UBorrow. Background includes information on similar programs and the use of Integrated Library Systems in this type of program. There is discussion of the pilot project which reviewed and selected the delivery system for this new program. Discussion also includes lessons learned concerning UBorrow's preliminary implementation and how unity in this service was created among a disparate group.     

Books on Research Methods and Bibliography

Dennis P. Forece and Stephen Richer's Stages of Social Research: Contemporary Perspectives (Prentice-Hall, $8.95)

Denis Grogan's Science and Technology: An Introduction to the Literature (Archen Books/Shoestring Press, $17.00)

John Brown Mason, Research Resources: Annotated Guide to the Social Sciences (American Bibliographical Center/Clio Press, Riviera Campus, 2010 Alameda Padre Sierra, Santa Barbara, California 93103, $3.00 each for two volumes)     

Educational Media

Jay Stein's Mass Media Education, and a Better Society (Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1979---$ )

Gavriel Salomon's Interaction of Media, Cognition, and Learning (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1079---$ )

Dennis D. McDonald et al, Directory of Public Broadcasting Information Resources (Washington: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1979--- free , paper)

Religious media communication, two recent titles     

E-Journal Usage and Impact in Scholarly Research: A Review of the Literature

This article reviews the literature dealing with scholarly information behavior around the use of e-journals. Its aims are to examine the use and impact the availability of e-journals has had on the community of scholars, mainly from the UK, but looking also at literature from other countries. Results demonstrated the huge rise in availability and take-up of e-journals, although there are mixed findings regarding the fate of the print format. Access to e-literature is dominated by keyword searching, with subject-specific (e.g., chemical abstracts); or general academic (Web of Knowledge) gateways and search engines (typically Google) all used above publishers platforms, alerts, and other ways to find literature. The value of e-journals has been shown to be high, both in terms of in gaining new insights and helping with teaching, and in measure of “Contingent valuation”: the time or cost incurred by not having provision. Barriers to e-journal use included non-purchase of titles by the library and years or volumes not available electronically. Although many disciplinary differences exist, due to their differing natures and means of scholarly communication, nevertheless, the review concludes that it is now unthinkable for researchers to work without the convenience and comprehensiveness that e-journals provide them.     

Book reviews

Access Denied in the Information Age edited by S. Lax, Palgrave, 2001, 236 pages, ISBN: 0 333 92019 8, http://www.palgrave.com/

Managing in the Media written by Peter Block (editor), W. Houseley, T. Nicholls, R. Southwell. Focal Press 2001, 388 pages, ISBN 0240515994, http://www.focalpress.com

Mobilising the Information Society: Strategies for Growth and Opportunity written by Robin Mansell and W. Edward Steinmueller, Oxford University Press, 2000, 516 pages, ISBN 0198295561, http://www.oup.com

Electronic Media Law and Regulation 3rd edition written by Kenneth C. Creech, Focal Press, 2000, 336 pages, ISBN 0240803590, http://www.focalpress.com     

Foreign competition,domestic knowledge base and innovation activities: Evidence from Chinese high-tech industries

Using panel data analysis for a sample of Chinese high-technology industries from 1998 to 2008, this study examines how industry characteristics affect industry innovation activities. Differing from existing studies, our research considers the impact of foreign competition on innovation activities at industry level in a large emerging economy. The results indicate that the intensity of competition from foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) and domestic skill intensity affect industry buy and make activities. Foreign competition is positively associated with the intensity of buy activity, but negatively affects the intensity of make activity. Further, the findings show that domestic skill intensity weakens the impact of foreign competitive pressure on innovation activities. Our empirical evidence has important policy implications.