Toward a critical rhetoric of risk communication: Producing citizens and the role of technical communicators

In this article, we build on arguments in risk communication that the predominant linear risk communication models are problematic for their failure to consider audience and additional contextual issues. The “failure”; of these risk communication models has led, some scholars argue, to a number of ethical and communicative problems. We seek to extend the critique, arguing that “risk”; is socially constructed. The claim for the social construction of risk has significant implications for both risk communication and the roles of technical communicators in risk situations. We frame these implications as a “critical rhetoric”; of risk communication that (1) dissolves the separation of risk assessment from risk communication to locate epistemology within communicative processes; (2) foregrounds power in risk communication as a way to frame ethical audience involvement; (3) argues for the technical communicator as one possessing the research and writing skills necessary for the complex processes of constructing and communicating risk.     

The Next Generation of Community College Leaders

Nearly a decade ago, Sullivan presented her interpretation of the four generations of community college leaders by describing them as “the founding fathers, the good managers, the collaborators, and the millennium generation” (Sullivan, 2001 Sullivan , L. G. ( 2001 ). Four generations of community college leadership . Community College Journal of Research and Practice , 25 , 559 – 571 .[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], p. 559). She predicted a shift to frames utilizing the Four-Frame Model of Leadership by Bolman and Deal (1991 Bolman , L. G. , & Deal , T. E. (1991). Leadership and management effectiveness: A multi-frame, multi-sector analysis. Human Resource Management , 30, 509–534.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This article provides a discussion of the research that has been published using the Bolman and Deal model and a synopsis of the current leadership challenges faced by community college leaders. And finally, a new prediction is made of the values, skills, and frames needed for these leaders.     

An Exploratory Study of the Influence of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) Program on African American Young Men in Southeastern North Carolina

This is a qualitative study of how the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program influenced 9 African American young men in southeastern North Carolina. To understand the impact of the program, a cross-section of current and past AVID participants were interviewed. The African American male students were asked about their attitudes toward education and how AVID influenced them socially and academically. Four themes that emerged from the data were: (a) Supportive, family-like relationships are built within the AVID classroom; (b) the students strive to do better academically; (c) specific AVID methodologies improve student achievement in preparation for college; and (d) AVID positively affects student attitudes toward education. These themes are discussed in relation to the literature. Finally, we suggest how this research might inform future studies.     

Keeping our teachers! Investigating mentoring practices to support and retain novice educators

For this study the researchers used data from the 2006 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions survey to investigate the possible relationship between mentoring and intentionality with respect to beginning teachers’ intentions to remain in the profession. The sample consists of 8838 teachers who were mentored during their first two years of teaching. To determine whether the quality of mentoring is related to teachers’ intentions to stay or leave the profession, mentor matching, degree of support, and frequency of interactions were variables examined. Beginning teachers who were matched by grade level, who received assistance with the supports investigated, and who met with mentors at least once monthly for the specified activities were more likely to commit to remaining in the profession than their peers who had received less support.     

Do Off-Campus Students Still Use Document Delivery? Current Trends

ABSTRACT

The tremendous increase in the availability of full text electronic resources has been particularly beneficial to distance education students who do not have easy access to print collections. However, Western Michigan University (WMU) has been experiencing a decrease in requests for traditional document delivery of print based materials. This article presents a case study of WMU document delivery services for the distance education community. A survey was also conducted of libraries serving distance education programs to determine whether other institutions are also experiencing a decrease in usage of document delivery. Survey results show a more universal trend toward decreasing requests for delivery of print based articles; book requests are also decreasing but not at the same rate. The article concludes with some possible reasons for the decrease in usage of document delivery for distance education.     

Policy making 2.0: From theory to practice

Government agencies are gradually moving from simpler towards more sophisticated and complex practices of social media use, which are characterized by important innovations at the technological, political and organizational level. This paper intends to provide two contributions to the current discourse about such advanced approaches to social media exploitation. The first is of practical nature and has to do with assessing the potential and the challenges of a centralized cross-platform approach to social media by government agencies in their policy making processes. The second contribution is of theoretical nature and consists in the development of a multi-dimensional framework for an integrated evaluation of such advanced practices of social media exploitation in public policy making from technological, political and organizational perspectives, drawing from theoretical constructs from different domains. The proposed framework is applied for the evaluation of a pilot consultation campaign conducted in Italy using multiple social media and concerning the large scale application of a telemedicine program.     

The Mother-in-Law Effect: Managing the Publicity of Personal Content Online

Audiences are what lend the “social” to social media. However, not all publics are equally welcomed by social media users, especially personal bloggers. Blog authors frequently exclude particular groups or types of people from their online content. As they negotiate the interplay of audience and blog, authors continuously create and destroy mediated publics, which are an important feature of the contemporary public/private distinction. The ways in which they manage those publics depend on the interplay of content and audiences. The creation and exclusion of numerous mediated blog publics illustrates a shift in the public/private distinction.     

The Government's Choice of Bureaucratic Organisation: An Application to Italian State Museums

Italian state museums are characterised by a rigid bureaucratic structure and are almost completely financed by government transfers. In this paper we develop a simplified two-stage model in an attempt to explain how the government's preferences for differentiated museum functions may affect museum organisation. The model shows that the government prefers that complementary functions (e.g., conservation and scientific research) be produced by a single museum, whereas it prefers that substitutable functions (e.g., conservation and access by the general public) be produced by two museums. We use this prediction for an empirical analysis of the organisational structure of Italian state museums. On the basis of the unique ISTAT census of the Italian museum system, we test with two separate probit models the probability of observing in a state museum the concentration of either scientific activities of conservation and research or promotion activities for education and the general public. Higher classes of centralisation for the state museums are also considered by means of an ordered probit model. The results seem to suggest that the Italian state museum structure, as surveyed in the early 1990s, fully reflected the traditional policy model viewing museums as institutions devoted to conservation, scientific research and education. JEL-Classification: D73, Z11     

Improving Direct‐Care Staff Consistency in a Residential Treatment Program through the Use of Self‐Recording and Feedback

A program for increasing staff effectiveness in implementing a group home behaviour management program was evaluated. The program consisted of self‐recording and supervisor feedback. A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate staff consistency in four skill areas; implementing response cost for the occurrence of physical aggression, implementing response cost for the occurrence of verbal aggression, setting guidelines for successful task completion, and providing feedback to residents. Staff increased consistency in all four areas following intervention. A one week follow‐up demonstrated short‐term maintenance of intervention effects. Results are discussed with reference to future training procedures.     

A methodological approach to short-term tracking of youth physical fitness: the Oporto Growth,Health and Performance Study

In this paper, three different statistical approaches were used to investigate short-term tracking of cardiorespiratory and performance-related physical fitness among adolescents. Data were obtained from the Oporto Growth, Health and Performance Study and comprised 1203 adolescents (549 girls) divided into two age cohorts (10–12 and 12–14 years) followed for three consecutive years, with annual assessment. Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed with 1-mile run/walk test; 50-yard dash, standing long jump, handgrip, and shuttle run test were used to rate performance-related physical fitness. Tracking was expressed in three different ways: auto-correlations, multilevel modelling with crude and adjusted model (for biological maturation, body mass index, and physical activity), and Cohen’s Kappa (κ) computed in IBM SPSS 20.0, HLM 7.01 and Longitudinal Data Analysis software, respectively. Tracking of physical fitness components was (1) moderate-to-high when described by auto-correlations; (2) low-to-moderate when crude and adjusted models were used; and (3) low according to Cohen’s Kappa (κ). These results demonstrate that when describing tracking, different methods should be considered since they provide distinct and more comprehensive views about physical fitness stability patterns.