Learning from participants in field based research

This paper takes a critically reflective look at field research done in the early career of an academic and in so doing uncovers the dilemmas of a novice researcher that are rarely acknowledged in texts that address qualitative methods. It addresses issues of power in research associations surrounding different paradigms and the ways in which the study changed as boundaries were increasingly blurred. It also examines lessons learned about interviewing and challenges the notion of an un‐analytical informant as being necessary to quality and depth of data.     

Sträuli Arslan,Leseknick — Lesekick. Leseförderung in vielsprachigen Schulen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Gender and textbooks: Women writers of elementary readers, 1880–1950

Between 1880 and 1950, the role of women as authors of elementary readers flowered and faded. From 1880 to 1915, female authorship dominated. Over the next fifteen years female authorship withstood the challenge of the scientific movement in education. Women’s role as solo authors declined, however, during the Depression, World War II and the postwar years. These changes are explained by the deteriorating environment for female professionalism, changes in the concept of reading expertise, the expanded role of publishers in textbook development, and the differences between men and women in opportunities for graduate study. E. Jennifer is Monaghan a professor in the Department of Educational Services, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. She is the founder of the History of Reading Special Interest Group of the International Reading Association and author ofA Common Heritage: Noah Webster’s Blue-Back Speller.     

Books are silent ambassadors: The Noma award for the translation of Japanese literature

Summary Now more than ever good translations are proving to be vitally important to fulfilling Shoichi Noma’s mission of advancing good relationships between cultures. With the emergence of dozens of world-class Japanese writers, the translators of Japanese literature have acquired a new significance and a new importance. No longer are they required to simply handle the language like an exotic and precious commodity but they must prepare a writer’s work to compete with literature from around the globe and let others understand the issues at their very heart of the Japanese people. Indeed, the selection committee’s choice of Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is an apt example of how literature at its very best can span cultural divides to promote mutual understanding of very complicated and important world issues. Written for Japanese to help them understand the devastation of war, it is a rare and timely book that confronts Japan’s experience head on. Ironically, Noma’s idea that books are silent ambassadors, an idea born from agony and defeat, so many years later is helping the world come together towards a unified vision of peace and understanding. “Literature has been described as a means of exchange between the hearts of people. Literary translation, then, is the building of bridges so that all peoples of the world can interact in this way.” Ye Weiqu, Chinese Institute of Social Studies.