The City of Richgate: A/r/tographic Cartography as Public Pedagogy

The City of Richgate project worked with eight intergenerational immigrant families and examined immigrant experiences and narratives through a community‐engaged process that employed a/r/tography as a methodology. As such, the research also investigated the extent to which a/r/tographical research could visually and narratively portray the analysis of data collected by the co‐a/r/tographers. After interviewing and collecting images from each family, large artistic gates (banners) were created. This first phase of the project revealed the power of images in situ, and thus the power of a/r/tography in situ. For the community members and co‐a/r/tographers meanings were constructed within ongoing a/r/tographic inquiries described as collective artistic and educational praxis. The second phase involved the identification of important places by each family within the City of Richmond. After analysing all of the data, several works of art were created with each family in mind: bus shelter images juxtaposing close‐up and far away geographical images; side‐by‐side images portraying historical and contemporary images of family ideals and/or issues; banners illustrating families in meaningful poses; and archival collections portraying the importance of identity and memory in the transformation of culture. This phase culminated in a citywide exhibition of the artwork performing public pedagogy. The exhibition questioned the idea of a City of Richmond having a community centre, and instead exhibited many Richgates, or conceptions of Richmond. Rather than having a city centre, there are many centres, a Network of Cities of Richgates, where centres are constantly changing and shifting to reflect the narratives of individuals living in a psycho‐geographical region of a city.     

Hate and harassment in academia: the rising concern of the online environment

Higher Education - Hostile online communication is a global concern. Academic research and teaching staff are among those professionals who routinely give public comments and are thus vulnerable to...     

Father involvement in young children’s care and education: exploring boundaries and starting conversations

This paper analyses the impact of a UK local authority initiative – Fathers’ Friday – aiming to involve fathers in their children’s education, which took place in 20 early years’ and primary school settings. Whilst the study involved a range of methods, in this paper interview data associated with practitioners’ perspectives of the initiative are used. Theoretically, Bernstein’s concept of boundary and related notions of classification and framing provide a framework for exploring fathers’ positioning, and Bernstein’s concept of ‘voice’ helps to explain how relations are repositioned, as fathers engage with settings through their participation in the initiative. The authors’ contention is that whilst an existing structure of social relations positions how settings and individuals can relate to one another, experiencing the Fathers’ Friday initiative under changed conditions produces a weakened boundary space for fathers, from which ‘conversations can start’. Children themselves form part of this process of redrawing weakened boundaries.     

Aspects of Fiscal Federalism in Higher Education Cost Sharing in Latvia

This case study explores devolution of low-income student subsidies, via the national student loans program, from the central to local governments in Latvia by means of decentralizing political and financial responsibility to provide public assistance to low-income students in obtaining funds for higher education. It describes municipal engagement in providing primary loan guarantees and in assuming full risk for low-income student loans. This article argues that although there are venues for local governments to support low-income students' access to higher education, the central government should sponsor this policy politically as well as financially.     

How Moroccan mothers and fathers view child development and their role in their children's education

Despite the documented importance of parental engagement in early learning, little is known about how parents in the Middle East and North Africa understand child development. To inform the literature, a small-scale study involving four focus groups was conducted with parents of children aged six years and under living in Casablanca. The purpose of this study was to explore parents' understanding of and support for their children's early development. Results reveal that parents see a vital role for themselves in their children's upbringing as supporters and nurturers, but little role as teachers. Across different education and income levels, parents in this small-scale qualitative study believe that children's experiences in their first years of life do not affect their longer-term intellectual development or school success and see little value in early intellectual stimulation or formal preschool education. Our results suggest that parents need to understand their role as their child's first educators. Also, it is essential that parents are taught how to promote their children's early cognitive development without undermining their nurturing roles.     

A biochemical study on the effect of Riboflavin on cataractous rat lenses. II Proteins and Glutathione

Proteins and glutathione (GSH) levels were estimated in the experimental groups. Levels of both proteins and glutathione in the control and the treated groups were found to be significantly decreased compared to the normal group. The results show that supplementation of riboflavin has beneficial effect by alleviating the oxidant injuries to GSH and proteins, which are involved in the maintenance of transparency and protection of thiol groups of the lens. Thus, riboflavin has an active role in the lens metabolism and has a potential to improve the metabolic activity of the cataractous lenses.     

SPECIAL ISSUE COMMENTARY: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Consultation in Gifted Education: Focusing on Practice Issues

This article provides a response from the perspectives of a teacher of the gifted and a trainer of teachers of the gifted. Following a brief summary of the authors' collective experience, the article highlights major issues represented by the four articles and identifies common themes across the various disciplines with respect to consultation and gifted education. A call for needed research and more collaborative work among gifted educators and school support personnel is made.     

Holdings of peace research journals in academic library collections

Peace movements have shaped national and international culture for decades. Although the Cold War is over, conflict-resolution issues continue to dominate headlines and the news. Peace literature holdings are vital to a relatively young but growing peace and conflict studies curricula. This study uses the list of serials abstracted by Peace Research Abstracts Journal to examine the holdings rates of peace-oriented journal titles in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries. Holdings rates are examined by library, title, and subject category. Their impact on scholars, researchers, and students is discussed. Findings reveal generally strong holdings rates among ARL libraries. The broad nature of peace research, however, results in greater variation in holdings among certain important sub-topics of the literature.