Assessment of KU Libraries’ Slavic & Eurasian Collection: Purpose,Process, and Potential

This paper discusses collection-related assessment projects that were conducted in 2013–2014 by the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries’ International Collections librarians in cooperation with librarians for assessment and resource sharing. While these assessment projects were undertaken in an effort to strengthen the library reports for KU’s Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) grant applications, which were submitted by KU’s area studies centers, the results also have implications for collection development work. The article begins with background about the NRC grants and explains why and how these assessment projects developed. Highlights of results from each assessment project are presented in the following order: assessment of the research needs of area studies faculty and graduate students at KU; citation patterns (2005–2013) of area studies, and more specifically, Slavic and Eurasian studies faculty at KU; and resource sharing data for the Slavic and Eurasian collection 2011–2013. The article concludes with a discussion about how the assessment data inform collection development practices and decisions.     

Is Management the “Tower of Babel” for Library and Information Science Programs?

Given the explosive growth of digital collections and the digital transformation of services in libraries, the need for management education in library and information science programs has grown. However, I contend in this article that confusion abounds like the “Tower of Babel” for LIS programs to accomplish this goal. A one size fits all approach does not work. Instead, management theory and principles need to be LIS-centric in accord with present day needs and conceptions. Management education also needs to be linked with scientific rigor to practice to meet the needs and expectations of LIS students. Rather than delivering management education that speaks the language of business, the content needs to resonate with the conditions for managing in the LIS context and to be supportive of the values of the LIS field. The article provides examples from research on management and innovation in libraries and other information-rich contexts. It also illustrates the types of issues that management education in LIS programs should address to deepen our understanding of the essential principles needed to manage information and knowledge.     

Recruiting young volunteers in an area of selective education: a qualitative case study

This article presents findings from a small qualitative case study of a youth volunteering brokerage organisation in England, operating in an area of selective state education. Data show how brokerage workers felt grammar schools managed their students in a concerted way to improve students’ chances of attending university. Conversely, workers expressed difficulty in working with comprehensive schools, feeling they were less willing to utilise volunteering services. These impressions lead the volunteering organisation to focus intently on recruiting potential volunteers from local grammar schools. As a result there is a need to reframe current debates in the sociology of education around institutional habitus, with a focus on the perceived habitus/doxa of schools. It is ultimately this (mis)recognition of institutional practices that leads to unequal policy outcomes, in this case reinforcing the advantage of academically elite students attending grammar schools.     

Effects of subject-area degree and classroom experience on new chemistry teachers’ subject matter knowledge

Science teachers need to understand the subject matter they teach. While subject matter knowledge (SMK) can improve with classroom teaching experience, it is problematic that many secondary science teachers leave the profession before garnering extensive classroom experience. Furthermore, many new science teachers are assigned to teach science subjects for which they do not hold a degree. This study investigates the SMK of new secondary science teachers assigned to teach chemistry in their first three years of teaching. These new teachers do not have the advantage of years of experience to develop their SMK and half hold a degree in biology rather than chemistry. This qualitative study explores the effects of holding a degree in the subject area one teaches as well as classroom teaching experience on teachers’ SMK for two chemistry topics, conservation of mass and chemical equilibrium. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews indicated that the SMK of teachers who had a chemistry degree and more extensive classroom experience was more coherent, chemistry-focused, and sophisticated than that of teachers who lacked this preparation and experience. This study provides evidence that new science teachers’ SMK is influenced by both holding a degree in the subject area and having classroom experience.     

Part-time Employment and Performance at A-level

How many sixth-formers have part-time paid employment, and does this affect their performance at A-level? This article describes how one teaching institution set up a project to collect and analyse data in an attempt to find answers to these questions.     

Challenges to university autonomy in initial teacher education programmes: The cases of England,Manitoba and British Columbia

Since the middle of the twentieth century in England and Canada responsibility for the design and delivery of pre-service teacher programmes has been located primarily in universities and their Faculties/Schools of Education. Operating within a tradition of university autonomy, the governance of these programmes is nonetheless constrained by the accreditation and certification requirements of the state and the profession and the pragmatic demands of teachers’ work. Over the last two decades, a variety of provisions have been made to regulate the pre-service preparation of teachers in both countries that have afforded quite different roles and authority to the state, the university, and the teaching profession. It is the interplay of these pressures on the governance of initial teacher preparation in three different jurisdictions—England, Manitoba and British Columbia—and the characterisation of teacher preparation associated with each, that is the focus of this article.     

Contentious dialogue: University presidential response and the 2016 U.S. presidential election

ABSTRACT

In recent years, technology has made it possible, and at times critical, for college and university presidents to increase their campus-wide public communication. However, there is little research that analyses these frequent and timely presidential communications. Using grounded theory, this study took steps to fill this gap by analysing the unprecedented response campuses had to the 2016 United States presidential election of Donald Trump. The analysis focused on the responses of presidents from the fifty state flagship universities and found emergent themes of unity, contentious election, negative event, university values, civil dialogue, services offered, and emotional rhetoric, while also finding significance in whether the letters were sent proactively or reactively.