Creativity in events and practices: a lens for understanding children's multimodal texts

This article argues that it is possible to look at children's texts in relation to the lens of literacy events and practices from the New Literacy Studies, and apply this perspective to an understanding of creativity. Teachers can then use the possibilities within a text to ask children different kinds of questions. Drawing on a 2‐year ethnographic study of a partnership between a group of artists and teachers in an Infants School in England, and their impact on children's text‐making, the paper seeks to understand the ways in which such a text can be identified as creative. A detailed analysis of one child's text is offered as evidence of this argument. This account is set within a project to map children's play in a Foundation classroom.     

Deaf children and children with ADHD in the inclusive classroom: working memory matters

This study compared the working memory functioning of deaf children, children with ADHD and typically developing children. Working memory is involved in the storage and mental manipulation of information during classroom learning activities that are crucial for the acquisition of complex skills and knowledge. Thus, it is important to determine how these groups compare in this regard as this has implications for teaching them together in an inclusive classroom. Simple and complex visuo-spatial and verbal working memory were assessed in 24 children with ADHD and 20 control children with no diagnosed ADHD, to determine whether any differences existed between these groups. A second comparison occurred between the simple and complex visuo-spatial working memory of the latter two groups, as well as 24 deaf children, all matched on age, gender and home language. The control group scored significantly higher than the deaf children and the children with ADHD on all components of simple and complex working memory. The implications of this finding are that children with ADHD and deaf children may share similar working memory profiles, making it easier to accommodate both sets of children together in the inclusive classroom. Suggestions are given for how educators could assist these children by reducing the demands on working memory.     

Indigenous knowledge and the knowledge commons

This paper studies the frameworks used to understand the commons, the knowledge commons, and indigenous knowledge. Discussion of enclosure, participation, rivalrous and non-rivalrous commons reveals that information and knowledge are resources that increase in value through use. The author examines current IK practices, focusing on documentation strategies and the role of the librarian. Studying IK practices in relation to the commons allows shared language to emerge. Challenging the frameworks, discourse and practices of both IK and the commons exposes and strengthens their connections to one another. This provides a platform for stronger advocacy for IK projects and the commons in general.     

Hard Lessons for Lifelong Learners? Age and Experience in the Graduate Labour Market

The expansion of the higher education system and widening access to undergraduate study has led to growing diversity within the graduate labour supply, including increasing numbers who studied for their degrees as mature students. Analysis of graduates entering the labour market prior to the major expansion in the early 1990s indicated that those over the age of 30 had considerably more difficulty than younger graduates in accessing the career opportunities for which their education had equipped them. Is this still the case for more recent graduates? Drawing on a major qualitative and quantitative study of a class of graduates who completed their undergraduate degree courses in 1995, this paper explores early career development and employment outcomes according to age at graduation. Although we find considerable diversity among all age groups, mature graduates were more likely than their younger peers to experience difficulty in accessing appropriate employment, had a lower rate of earnings growth and expressed higher levels of dissatisfaction with their jobs.     

Electronic journals: user realities — the truth about content usage among the STM community

Kate Worlock, a consultant for research and consultancy organization Electronic Publishing Services, reports on a study conducted for the Ingenta Institute on how UK users access, use, and pay for electronic articles from scientific journals. The findings reveal a research community increasingly conditioned to expecting content as soon as it is available for dissemination rather than waiting for the delivery of the physical journal itself.     

Producing the German Civic Nation: Immigrant Patriotism in Berlin's World Cup Flag Fight

In order to untangle the tension between the exclusionary prerogative of sovereignty and the universalizing philosophy of the nation-state under civic nationalism, this study examines the press coverage of a flag fight in an immigrant neighborhood of Berlin during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In the heavily mediatized struggle, German anti-fascists repeatedly damaged and stole a 22-meter-tall German flag belonging to a family of Lebanese extraction. The flag fight and the media's coverage of it demonstrated competing and overlapping definitions of citizenship, with the media and the flag owners promoting a civic form of nationalism. The case illuminates a national project to redefine German national identity and expand it beyond the boundaries of ethnic nationalism. At the same time, it reveals persistent anxieties about migrant spaces and their place in the nation.