Constructing the “new ethnicities”: media,sexuality, and diaspora identity in the lives of South Asian immigrant girls

This paper posits that adolescence, as experienced by girls of immigrant diaspora groups, is complicated by issues of race, culture and nation that intersect with discourses of sex and gender. In terms of globalization theory, sexuality is conceptualized as a locus of cultural hybridization; media representations of sexuality often mark the global/local nexus for diaspora peoples. In this study, a series of in‐depth interviews were conducted with South Asian American girls in order to analyze the role of media in their sexual identity constructions. The focus group data revealed radical rearticulations of sexual identity from an “interstitial” audience position that involved oppositional readings of various media texts. These rearticulations can be seen as part of the project of forging new ethnicities in the diaspora context.     

Managing the link between higher education and the labour market: perceptions of graduates in Greece and Cyprus

Tertiary Education and Management - The paper investigates the experience of employed higher education graduates in two countries with high rates of graduate unemployment. It examines the...     

Productivity as an indication of quality in higher education: the views of employed graduates in Greece

The paper investigates the views of Greek university graduates on the link between higher education and productivity in order to determine the extent to which productivity can be considered to be an indication of quality in higher education. It also investigates the perceived effect of the type and content of higher education on productivity; factors limiting the positive impact of higher education on productivity; and ways of reducing the influence of these factors. In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 employed university graduates in Greece. Respondents generally considered higher education to have a productivity-enhancing effect, in disagreement with the screening challenge to the human capital interpretation of the link between education and productivity. The findings also suggest that respondents embraced specific conceptualisations of quality in higher education.     

Learning from Rookie Mistakes: Critical Incidents in Developing Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching Science to Teachers

While there is a growing literature focused on doctoral preparation for teaching about science teaching, rarely have recommendations extended to preparation for teaching science content to teachers. We three doctoral students employ self-study as a research methodology to investigate our developing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science to teachers during a mentored internship in an elementary teacher professional development program. With our mentor, we examine critical incidents in the experience that supported new insights about teaching teachers and about ways in which beginning teacher educators need to develop their existing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching science to students in order to teach science effectively to teachers. We emphasize ways in which doctoral internships can support this learning and how our respective cultures shaped our interactions with and perceptions of teachers as learners.     

Perceived rates of return to higher education: Further evidence from Cyprus

The paper provides new estimates of the perceived rates of return to higher education in Cyprus and compares them to previous estimates for the year 1994 in the same country. Both the elaborate and the short-cut methods are used in the estimation of rates of return. The estimated rates are entered as independent variables in logistic regression analysis in order to study the effect of economic considerations on the decision of secondary school students to pursue higher education. The findings show an increase in the perceived rate of return for both higher education and labour market entrants. In agreement with human capital theory, the mean rate of return to higher education expected by higher education candidates is considerably higher than that expected by labour market entrants. In two logistic regression models, the perceived rate of return to higher education, as estimated by both the elaborate and the short-cut methods, has a significant effect on the students’ intention to pursue higher studies.     

Student Involmement in University Governance: A Need for Negotiated Educational Aims?

The paper argues for the need toincrease student participation in universitygovernance, especially in relation tohigh-level decision-making concerning the aimsand mission of tertiary institutions. The paperexamines the arguments in favour of, andagainst, student participation in universitygovernance. It also provides an overview ofthe findings of recent empirical studies on thetopic. The need for a process of negotiation inthe setting of higher education aims isemphasised and several suggestions are offeredregarding ways of increasing studentinvolvement in the aims-setting process.     

Improving Science and Literacy Learning for English Language Learners: Evidence from a Pre-service Teacher Preparation Intervention

This paper present findings from a pre-service teacher development project that prepared novice teachers to promote English language and literacy development with inquiry-based science through a modified elementary science methods course and professional development for cooperating teachers. To study the project’s impact on student learning, we administered a pre and post assessment to students (N = 191) of nine first year elementary teachers (grades 3 through 6) who experienced the intervention and who taught a common science unit. Preliminary results indicate that (1) student learning improved across all categories (science concepts, writing, and vocabulary)—although the effect varied by category, and (2) English Language Learner (ELL) learning gains were on par with non-ELLs, with differences across proficiency levels for vocabulary gain scores. These results warrant further analyses to understand the extent to which the intervention improved teacher practice and student learning. This study confirms the findings of previous research that the integration of science language and literacy practices can improve ELL achievement in science concepts, writing and vocabulary. In addition, the study indicates that it is possible to begin to link the practices taught in pre-service teacher preparation to novice teacher practice and student learning outcomes.     

Breakthrough recognition: Bias against novelty and competition for attention

Adding to the literature on the recognition and spread of ideas, and alongside the bias against novelty view documented in prior research, we introduce the perspective that articles compete for the attention of researchers who might build upon them. We investigate this effect by analyzing more than 5.3 million research publications from 1970 to 1999 in the life sciences. In support of our competition for attention perspective, we show that articles covering rarely addressed topics tend to receive more citations and have a higher chance of being breakthrough papers as compared to articles on more popular topics. We also explore conditions under which these effects might vary by using decade subsamples, home- versus foreign-field forward citations, as well as short-, medium- and long-term time windows. Finally, we also find evidence consistent with the previously documented bias against novelty and show that both mechanisms can work simultaneously.