On the making and taking of professionalism in the further education workplace

This paper examines the changing nature of professional practice in English further education. At a time when neo‐liberal reform has significantly impacted on this under‐researched and over‐market‐tested sector, little is known about who its practitioners are and how they construct meaning in their work. Sociological interest in the field has tended to focus on further education practitioners as either the subjects of market and managerial reform or as creative agents operating within the contradictions of audit and inspection cultures. In challenging such dualism, which is reflective of wider sociological thinking, the paper examines the ways in which agency and structure combine to produce a more transformative conception of the further education professional. The approach contrasts with a prevailing policy discourse that seeks to re‐professionalise and modernise further education practice without interrogating either the terms of its professionalism or the neo‐liberal practices in which it resides.     

The ideal of standards and the reality of schools: Needed research

Abstract: Research potentially can assist in the process of implementing the National Science Education Standards. Existing research shows that changes called for in the Standards are difficult to put into practice, create dilemmas for teachers, require significant changes in teachers' values and beliefs, are fostered when change is pursued within departments within schools, are influenced powerfully by teacher collaboration in the work context, are often resisted strongly by parents, and often demand new student roles and different student work. The results of research on reform do not give a definitive picture of the most productive roles for students, the nature of the desired student work, how teachers can best be engaged in reassessing values and beliefs and taking responsibility for acquiring new professional competencies, how to realize “science for all,” and the most effective ways of involving parents. Research is needed which will: (1) be approached from multiple perspectives, (2) be conducted in the “real world,” (3) focus on interventions into conventional school practice, (4) not assume change can be driven from the top down, (5) be interpretive in nature, (6) focus on student roles and student work, (7) give major attention to teacher learning, (8) attend to parents' concerns, and (9) be approached systemically. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 3–16, 2001     

Analysis of the consumption of artistic-cultural goods and services in Brazil

This work aims to evaluate the determinants of the consumption of artistic-cultural goods and services in Brazil, conceiving this consumption as an activity with positive effects on the consumer and on the society as a whole. Using the human capital approach, we estimate a model in which the expenditures on artistic-cultural goods and services depend on socio-economic, educational and socio-demographic characteristics of the head of the household, and on variables that indicate the location of the household. The results indicate that artistic-cultural expenditures are strongly determined by income and by the education of the consumer. Furthermore, the expenditure differs regionally, which may occur due to supply variations or historic-cultural distinctions.     

Exploring the applicability of the Semantic Web for discovering and navigating Australian Indigenous knowledge resources

ABSTRACT

Semantic Web ontology files can be flexibly programmed to delineate metadata relationships in machine-readable formats to create relational pathways for discovering resources both on and off the Internet. There is a global community of Semantic Web developers and users across a broad multi-disciplinary range of interests who create and share extensible open-source ontologies. In this article, the author will explore the functionality of Semantic Web techniques for representing the ontologies of relatedness through kinship that typically underpin Australian Indigenous knowledge systems, and investigate their potentials for meeting persistent demands among leading Australian Indigenous collections creators and users to be able to search and discover their hereditary knowledge resources in ways that reflect and reinforce their enduring cultural values, ways of knowing and rights-management concerns.     

‘Nothing but Trouble’: The Soviet Union's Push to ‘Democratise’ International Sports During the Cold War, 1959–1962

Analysing internal documents from recently accessible Soviet archives as well as International Olympic Committee (IOC) correspondence, this article explores how Soviet sports administrators sought to gain influence and authority in international sports in order to advance Soviet state goals during the Cold War. To counter the ‘reactionary’, ‘Anglo-American’ bloc they perceived in the IOC and International Federations (IFs), members of the Soviet All-Union Committee on Physical Culture and Sport sought to ‘democratise’ international sports organisations by transforming them into truly international bodies that included representatives from all regions of the world, especially those sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Because of the governing culture of the IOC and the personalities of many of its members, any stance taken on by Soviet members could not overtly challenge Olympic ideals. Couching their call to expand Olympism in the principles of international cooperation, democracy and the right for everyone to participate in sports, Soviet administrators could present themselves as dedicated promoters of sport and use their clout to further Soviet interests. Through their efforts to increase Soviet influence globally, Soviet administrators challenged the insularity of the IOC and IFs and helped to transform international sports and the Olympic Games into a truly global movement.     

Implementing RECONSIDER, a diagnostic prompting computer system, at the Georgetown University Medical Center

RECONSIDER, a computer program for diagnostic prompting developed at the University of California, San Francisco, has been implemented at the Georgetown University Medical Center as part of the Integrated Academic Information Management System Model Development grant project supported by the National Library of Medicine. The system is available for student use in the Biomedical Information Resources Center of the Dahlgren Memorial Library. Instruction on use of the computer system is provided by the library and instruction on medical use of the knowledge base is directed by the faculty. The implementation, capabilities, enhancements such as the addition of Current Medical Information and Terminology (5th ed.), and evaluation of the system are reported.     

Amount,content and context of infant media exposure: a parental questionnaire and diary analysis

Recent research has indicated that there are long‐term consequences of early media exposure. This study examined the amount, content and context of television exposure across the infancy period in the USA. Parents of 308 infants aged 6–18 months completed questionnaires detailing parental attitudes regarding their children’s television use and 24‐hour television diaries to provide an accurate measurement of household television usage. Television exposure during infancy varied as a function of infant age, sibling status, socio‐economic status and parental attitudes toward television. Regression analyses indicated that parental attitudes were not associated with the amount of television exposure, but were associated with the content of television exposure. These findings indicate that television exposure changes rapidly across infancy and is associated with parental attitudes.     

Social Presence and Identity: Facebook in an English Language Classroom

While social media is widely used by youth around the world, research is only beginning to document how transnational students employ these technologies. This study investigated how English-learning adolescents in the United States use social media to engage in social, academic, and identity work. Data were collected during a four-day social media unit in a high school English as a Second Language class of mostly recently arrived East African youth. Data sources included Facebook posts, video recordings of class interactions, student presentations, and interviews. These data were analyzed through post-structuralist identity frames (e.g., Norton, 2010) and the social semiotic construct of modality (van Leeuwen, 2005). Analyses indicated that through the process of building social presence (SP), learners asserted identities, which were affirmed by classmates, and legitimated their contributions. This legitimation resulted in rich, interactive learning experiences in the group. This finding has implications for using social media in classes with transnational newcomers.