The Google Art Project: A New Generation of Museums on the Web?

Abstract On February 1, 2011, Google launched its much‐heralded Art Project in partnership with 17 museums from Europe and the U.S. Despite the limited content and a long wish‐list of enhancements, the Google Art Project offers a glimpse of innovative new ways for museums to use and be used on the Web, collaboratively.     

‘Parents don’t want their children to speak their home language’: how do educators negotiate partnerships with Chinese parents regarding their children’s use of home language and English in early childhood settings?

This study investigated five Australian early childhood educators’ negotiation of the complex terrain of working in partnership with Chinese parents regarding their children’s language usage in early childhood settings. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken to explore educators’ views on children’s language usage in early childhood settings, their perception of Chinese parents’ language expectations and their strategies in resolving the tension between parental expectation and educator views on children’s language usage under the current regulatory frameworks. Educators reported that many Chinese parents expected their children to use only English in early childhood settings. Such a practice would not align with educators’ views of permitting children to use languages freely. The educators developed different strategies to address the tension between their desire to achieve positive outcomes for children and their need to work in partnership with families. Implications for the further preparation of educators are discussed.     

International perspectives on student awareness,experiences and perceptions of research: implications for academic developers in implementing research‐based teaching and learning

This paper explores the implications of the effective integration of research, teaching and learning for academic development through the lens of an international multi‐institutional comparison of student perceptions of research and its impact on their learning environment. The study, with a sample of over 500 final‐year undergraduate students across three institutions in the UK and Canada, represents a spectrum of research and teaching intensive universities and is one of the largest exploring undergraduate student perceptions of research in the linking teaching and research literature. The results indicate a complex relationship between student perceptions and experiences of research and the type of institution, as well as the individual, institutional and national context. They also inform the discussion of particular issues that academic developers face and the strategies they use to improve the integration of research and teaching to benefit the undergraduate learning experience in their institution.

Cet article explore les implications, pour le développement pédagogique, de l’intégration effective de la recherche, de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage à l’aide de la lentille d’une comparaison internationale multi institutionnelle des perceptions étudiantes à l’égard de la recherche et de leur impact sur l’environnement d’apprentissage. L’étude, reposant sur un échantillon de plus de 500 étudiants en dernière année de 1^er cycle, provenant de trois institutions au Royaume‐Uni et au Canada, représente un spectre d’universités centrées sur l’enseignement ou sur la recherche. L’étude constitue une des recherches les plus importantes au sujet des perceptions étudiantes à l’égard de la recherche dans la littérature portant sur le lien entre l’enseignement et la recherche. Les résultats indiquent une relation complexe entre les perceptions et les expériences des étudiants, et le type d’institution, de même qu’avec les contextes individuel, institutionnel et national. Les résultats contribuent aussi à la discussion de questions particulières auxquelles les conseillers pédagogiques font face ainsi que les stratégies que ceux‐ci utilisent en vue d’améliorer l’intégration de la recherche et de l’enseignement de façon à en faire bénéficier l’expérience d’apprentissage au 1^er cycle au sein de leur institution.     

‘Every child's birthright’? Democratic entitlement and the role of canonical literature in the English National Curriculum

In the current government's ‘Great Books' approach to the National Curriculum for English lies an apparent desire for all school students to benefit from access to a shared ‘cultural heritage', where compulsory knowledge of Shakespeare and other canonical writers is in itself assumed to be a transformative and democratising process. With reference to qualitative classroom-based research focusing on year 9 and 10 students' experience of Shakespeare at Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, this article questions that assumption. Drawing on classroom and interview data from two London comprehensive schools, it suggests that for many students it has been an experience that serves to exclude, a reproduction of existing socio-cultural differences. Ultimately, even in classrooms where teachers attempt to construct Shakespeare pedagogically as ‘active’, the process of reading may remain a passive one, where textual meanings are ultimately almost entirely mediated by teachers, mindful of ensuring all students are afforded ‘access’ to the text. This article argues that Shakespeare’s iconic status and the authority of the text thus remain largely intact, a disabling process for some students.