'Fellow travellers' and 'true believers': A case study of religion and politics in Alberta schools

The topic of religion within public schools has generated interest in several countries in recent years. In Canada, the United States, and England, educational policies favouring greater parental choice in education through grantmaintained schools, Charter schools and voucher plans have renewed parental interest in this area. Alternatively, one might argue that the lobbying by religious parents and others for choice has influenced educational policy. The dynamics of change are not always clear. This paper explores these dynamics through a two-part longitudinal case study in Alberta, Canada. My examination of events over a period of almost twenty years reveals both the micro-politics around religious programming in public schools and the macro-level changes in the policy context between the late 1970s and mid-1990s. This micro-macro approach provides a sense of the impact of local histories on education policies as well as parallels between sites.     

The long term educational needs of a high-technology society

This paper provides a synthesis of information from extant research and policy documentation on information technology (IT) workforce issues in the US and abroad. In particular, it addresses some of the issues that concerned the USA's 21st Century Workforce Commission, which was established to look at the IT labour market. It defines the IT market fairly broadly and is concerned with the overall IT workforce. The paper covers both supply and demand issues and looks to address a variety of questions concerning the longer-term nature of IT employment and any potential labour market imperfections that may arise through inappropriate educational strategies. It looks at the skills needed to obtain IT jobs, ways to increase the supply of IT workers, and describes and assesses a number of foreign programmes for training individuals for IT employment.     

The logic of equity practice in Queensland state education—2010

This paper reports on an interview‐based study which explored the implementation of a major policy initiative in Queensland, Australia, with particular attention to social justice issues. Interviews were conducted with key policy actors in three sections of the bureaucracy: strategic directions, performance and measurement; curriculum and assessment; workforce and professional development. We were interested in the ways in which the tensions between redistributive and recognitive approaches to social justice were being managed in the bureaucracy. We drew on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, logic of practice, political discourse, habitus, capital, and symbolic power struggles to theorize the politics of discourse associated with such policy implementation processes within bureaucracies. The interview data revealed differences in approach to equity issues and in the language used in the three sections of the bureaucracy. We argue that these differences, associated with the different priorities of the three sections and their differing roles in the implementation processes, reflect the different logics of practice operating within the different sections. The final section of the paper discusses the implications of the analysis for theorizing equity and difference in education policy in new times and considers the value of Bourdieu’s concepts for theorizing policy implementation processes.     

Regional and Local Differences in Admission Arrangements for Schools

This paper describes the results of an analysis of the secondary school admissions arrangements, current and past, published by 40 Local Education Authorities in England and Wales. Arrangements are separated here into application procedures and school allocation criteria, and explored through an examination of specific examples of each type. The potential impacts of these arrangements for school admissions and for the changing social composition of schools are discussed. Perhaps the most significant finding is the scale of variation, even between apparently similar regions, in the nature of the admissions process, given that all procedures are presented as being in accordance with national legislation. Because the local implementation of national policy gives authorities this leeway in interpretation, many areas have not changed their procedures much, either in response to the Education Reform Act 1988, or the subsequent School Standards and Framework Act 1998.     

The repeat audience for movies on TV

An excellent example of cross‐disciplinary research is the following piece in which an economist makes some research‐supported suggestions on scheduling of motion pictures seen on television so that audiences for the reruns may be maximized. Professor Taylor is a member of the economics faculty at Northern Illinois University in Normal.     

Integrating Information Literacy into Business Education: A Successful Case of Faculty-Librarian Collaboration

This article reports on a successful case of collaboration between business librarians and faculty members in selecting, procuring, and servicing electronic databases in meeting academic objectives in one of the largest undergraduate business programs in the United States. Using a survey to measure students' self-reported knowledge before and after a training module developed and conducted by librarian and faculty, this study shows the extent of learning gain with respect to students' ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the required information. Comparing to the results of a control group of students without the training, the authors adjusted for learning gain due to other activities or measurement. The findings show significant perceived as well as objective learning gain as a result of concerted team efforts in training and teaching by the librarian and discipline faculty.