The logic of archival authenticity: ISO 15489 and the varieties of forgeries in archives

According to ISO 15489, the international standard on records management, the four main characteristics of authoritative records are reliability, integrity, usability and authenticity. In this article, the traits of an ideal record as specified by ISO 15489 are discussed by looking at the opposite of an authentic record – a forgery. By examining the varieties of forgeries found in archives, ranging from forgeries of details to forgeries of entire documents both by record creators and users, the argument is put forth that the difference between an authentic and reliable record and a forgery is not at all obvious. Since forgeries are a regrettable evil of an archive, instead of trying to fix authenticity, more thought should be spared on users’ and archivists’ attitudes towards forgeries and how inauthentic records should be handled in an archive.     

Revising a College 101 Course for Sustained Impact: Early Outcomes

ABSTRACT

In response to strikingly low completion rates in public 2-year colleges, including for students who are well-prepared academically, most community colleges across the country offer student success courses as one approach to improving outcomes for students. Some colleges have begun to revise these courses in response to research indicating that their impact fades over time. This article examines Bronx Community College’s efforts to restructure their student success course into a First Year Seminar (FYS) that integrates college orientation activities, disciplinary content, and academic success skills. The course emphasizes student-centered pedagogies in order to encourage learning that persists beyond the semester of participation. We use mixed methods to assess the early outcomes of students in FYS courses and understand whether and why the course’s impact has the potential to be sustained. Using propensity score matching to compare 1,138 FYS participants to 1,138 similar nonparticipants, we find early evidence that the FYS approach leads to positive outcomes, including higher grade point averages (GPA) and earning more credits. Using classroom observations (N = 40), instructor interviews (N = 10), and interviews with participants (N = 27), we find that FYS appears to facilitate student-centered, contextualized, and applied learning, thereby helping students apply their FYS-related skills in future courses. This study has implications for reforming student success courses in a way that achieves long-term positive student outcomes.     

Video Games as Technical Communication Ecology

With an ecological approach to the genres that circulate within communities of practice, this article traces the overlap between technical communication and online gaming communities in terms of their rhetorical uses of technical communication genres. Through shared practices, technologies, and epistemologies, online gaming environments call upon gamers to become technical communicators and provide opportunities for technical communicators to apply their expertise within the gaming industry.     

Teaching Future Teachers: A Model Workshop for Doctoral Education

Doctoral student training has become focused in recent years on acquiring subject-area knowledge and research skills, rather than on teaching. This shift often leaves aspiring junior faculty feeling unprepared to address the demanding pedagogical requirements of the professoriate. In the area of social work, few programs contain a structured, required program of study that addresses issues unique to teaching in a school of social work. This article outlines a doctoral teaching workshop as a model framework for social work doctoral programs. Suggestions are provided for ways to incorporate such an effort into current social work doctoral education.     

Married women and career: career history accounts of primary headteachers

This paper considers how the detail of individual life history and career biography can contribute to sociological understanding about women and career. Using career history material from married women primary and infant headteachers, the paper considers what were, for the women themselves, the structural conditions and the characteristics of the teaching labour market. This is followed by an examination of the variations in the attitudes and experiences of individual women to their work and to promotion in their careers. The paper argues that the study of career biography enables us to make the theoretical link between the structural conditions in particular labour markets and the meanings of career to individual women.     

A Comparison of Dome and Computer Planetaria in the Teaching of Astronomy

The learning of pupils from Years 5 and 6 (9-and 10-year-olds) when taught with the aid of dome and computer planetaria was investigated. The two kinds of planetarium were found to be equally effective, although the learning was confined to female pupils. It is suggested that the use of planetaria might enable females to catch up with males in areas of astronomy which make heavy demands on spatial ability. Substantial learning also took place in the pre-service education students who led the planetaria sessions.