Mentoring in context: A comparison of two U.S. programs for beginning teachers

In reporting on one aspect of a national center's research on teacher education, this chapter examines two U.S. programs in which experienced teachers are expected to play major roles in the induction and socialization of beginning teachers. By exploring connections between what experienced teachers in the two projects do and the organizational and intellectual contexts within which they work, this analysis demonstrates that the contextual conditions of mentoring can lead to striking differences in the definition and enactment of mentoring roles. The final section then relates this comparative study to broader claims about the power of mentoring to improve teaching.     

Black Feminist Activism: Theory as Generating Collective Resistance

Black feminist scholars have theorized ways in which power permeates our everyday lived experiences. The authors of this article, a university faculty member and a grassroots community activist, share their collective Black feminist activist efforts to find spaces of resistance and empowerment within oppressive conditions in the city of New Orleans.     

Creating Classrooms of and for Activism at the Intersections of Class,Race, Ethnicity,Gender, and Disability

In this article the authors describe pedagogy which rests on commitments to solidarity, activism, and intersectional understandings of personhood and social (in)justices. The authors seek to create accessible classrooms where our many selves and critical consciousness can be in (dis)comforting conversation with one another. Then, they hope to bring activism to the streets.     

Impact of physical activity domains on subsequent physical activity in youth: a 5-year longitudinal study

This study evaluates how domains of physical activity (PA) in youth predict later PA and assesses factors influencing changes in sports participation. Young people from the Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity study (n = 873; baseline age 10–18 years; 30.4% male) completed self-report surveys in 2009 and 2014. In a multiple linear regression analysis, participation frequency in club sport (β = 0.18) and extracurricular sport (β = 0.13) significantly predicted PA 5 years later, adjusted for age, sex and urban/rural classification (P < 0.01). Overall, rates of regular (at least once per week) youth sports participation were high (males 79.3–85.5%; females 74.8–83.2%). Uptake and dropout of specific sports varied widely. Despite high levels of migration into and out of Gaelic games, they remained popular at follow-up. Weight training was the only sport that increased in both sexes (P < 0.05). Fitness, friends and enjoyment were top motivations for taking up a new sport. Other commitments, a lack of interest and time were important factors leading to sports dropout. PA promotion strategies should include youth sport, take into consideration what sports are attractive to young people and address reasons for uptake and dropout.     

At War with the Chinese Economic Yellow Peril: Mitt Romney’s 2012 Presidential Campaign Rhetoric

This study examines the evolution of yellow peril tropes in a subset of US political discourse by conducting a close textual analysis of Mitt Romney’s rhetoric during the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign. I argue that Romney revised yellow peril tropes of the Chinese as immoral, ruthless scapegoats to construct China as an economic yellow peril. In turn, the threat posed by this peril is augmented by Romney’s use of anti-communist tropes, which draw upon deeply entrenched Cold War fears to position the United States and China as adversaries. This project provides insight into the functions of anti-China appeals in U.S. presidential campaign discourse.     

Insights and opinions of readers of the Journal of the Medical Library Association

The Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) conducted a readership survey in 2020 to gain a deeper understanding of our readers, their reading habits, and their satisfaction with JMLA''s content, website functionality, and overall quality. A total of 467 readers responded to the survey, most of whom were librarians/information specialists (85%), worked in an academic (62%) or hospital/health care system (27%) library, and were current Medical Library Association members (80%). Most survey respondents (46%) reported reading JMLA articles on a quarterly basis. Over half of respondents (53%) said they used social media to follow new research or publications, with Twitter being the most popular platform. Respondents stated that Original Investigations, Case Reports, Knowledge Syntheses, and Resource Reviews articles were the most enjoyable to read and important to their research and practice. Almost all respondents reported being satisfied or very satisfied (94%) with the JMLA website. Some respondents felt that the content of JMLA leaned more toward academic librarianship than toward clinical/hospital librarianship and that there were not enough articles on collection management or technical services. These opinions and insights of our readers help keep the JMLA editorial team on track toward publishing articles that are of interest and utility to our audience, raising reader awareness of new content, providing a website that is easy to navigate and use, and maintaining our status as the premier journal in health sciences librarianship.

The Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA), in tandem with the Medical Library Association (MLA), periodically conducts readership surveys to gauge how well the journal meets the needs and desires of its readers. However, much time has passed and many changes have occurred since our last readership survey was published in 2013 [1]. These changes include our transition from a largely print-based to an almost fully digital mode of publication, more extensive reliance on providing access to supplemental materials to improve the rigor and reproducibility of research findings, and the use of social media to share and stay abreast of new scholarly works. Therefore, we conducted a readership survey in 2020 to obtain a more current understanding of our readers, their reading habits, and their satisfaction with JMLA''s content, website functionality, and overall quality.The survey was implemented using Qualtrics and consisted of sixteen closed- and open-ended questions (Appendix A). The survey invitation was distributed on July 6, 2020, through MLA email listservs and social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn), JMLA''s Twitter account, and an announcement on the JMLA website. Recipients were encouraged to forward the invitation through other communication channels as appropriate. The survey was closed on July 20, 2020.