Mother–Child Referencing of Environmental Print and Its Relationship With Emergent Literacy Skills

Research Findings: Environmental print provides children with their earliest print experiences. This observational study investigated the frequency of mother–child environmental print referencing and its relationship with emergent literacy. A total of 35 mothers and their children (ages 3–4 years) were videotaped interacting in an environmental print–rich play setting. The frequency of environmental print referencing of letters and words was measured. Children were assessed on emergent literacy skills (letter name and sound knowledge, print concepts, phonological awareness, name and letter writing, environmental print reading). In all, 69% of mothers referenced environmental print. After child age, home literacy teaching, and maternal education were controlled for, greater maternal referencing of environmental print was positively related to print concepts and name and letter writing. Child environmental print referencing was positively related to name and letter writing as well as to maternal environmental print referencing. Mothers used a range of mediation strategies to support children's interactions with environmental print. Practice or Policy: Maternal referencing of environmental print may be a useful way to scaffold emergent literacy in young children.     

Criminology/Criminal Justice Representation in the Discipline of Sociology: Changes between 1992 and 2002

This paper examines changes in the representation of criminology, as an area of specialization, in the discipline of sociology between 1992 and 2002. Utilizing the ASA Guide to Graduate Programs in Sociology, we note faculty areas of specialization. We expect that criminology will appear more often as a specialty area in 1992 than 2002. All full‐time faculty in U.S. graduate programs in sociology are included in the analyses. We found no significant change in listing criminal justice as a specialty between 1992 and 2002. Our findings suggest that faculty with terminal degrees from less prestigious institutions and those who teach in less prestigious institutions are more likely to list criminology as a specialty area.     

School data as mediators in professional development

International research documents a variety of approaches for fostering the professional development of principals. These studies mainly draw upon survey and interview data. Less attention has been paid to observing professional development processes. This article aims to examine how professional learning is played out empirically in the interactions among members of a school improvement team in a Norwegian context by paying special attention to school data as the departure for professional development of principals. Cultural Historical Activity Theory frames the analysis. The findings suggest that video clips of teaching practices stimulate engagement among team members and, hence, mediate professional learning processes beyond the situations presented in the workshops. These video clips triggered analyses of how to understand and improve teaching practices. In addition, external facilitation seemed crucial for anchoring the analysis theoretically, and for highlighting implications for leadership in the workshops.     

In Our Own Voices: Reproductive Health Radio Programming in the Peruvian Amazon

This article examines the political and social implications of broadening public discourse and facilitating a collective mediated space in which gendered inequities, interests, and identities are debated via the feminist reproductive health radio program Bienvenida Salud! The article describes the mediascape in rural and indigenous Peruvian Amazonian communities and the ways in which feminist reproductive rights discourse has been introduced and interpreted in communities that have limited exposure to global feminism. By analyzing the reception and listening practices among the Bienvenida Salud! audience, the authors explore arguments about the limits and possibilities of participatory media to effect social change. Finally, the article examines the capacity of Amazonian women to use alternative media to voice their traditionally ignored reproductive health priorities, goals, and practices, and in so doing, critically assesses the potential of participatory media interventions to influence the discourses of global feminism and population planning.     

Acknowledgment of victory and defeat: The reciprocal ritual

Acknowledgment of victory and defeat by presidential opponents is a reciprocal ritual that terminates the campaign for the mass audience. It is argued here that situational and substantive rules have evolved that govern these brief messages and that violation of these rules causes disruption in the transition of leadership. Rules are derived from examination of all presidential victory and concession statements from 1952–1976. These rules are then applied to the Carter‐Reagan statements made on election night, 1980.     

The impact of alternative approaches to comforting,closeness of relationship,and gender on multiple measures of effectiveness

The impact of 6 approaches to comforting (suggesting a diversion, expressing optimism, providing an external account, offering assistance, explaining the perspective of the offender, and a combination of the first 5), attributed to either a good friend or a casual acquaintance, was assessed for 2 situations by 394 students. Distressed individuals responded to comforting messages along two dimension: feeling less upset and feeling demeaned, with some indications that yet a third dimension (appreciating the concern of the comforter) may exist. The message that combined elements from the other 5 approaches yielded generally the most positive responses, but responses to specific message approaches varied with situation and dimension of response. Messages from good friends were more successful than those from casual acquaintances in helping the distressed individual to feel less upset.     

An assessment of methodological options for investigating the development of persuasive skills across childhood

This study compared two fundamentally different approaches to assessing the development of persuasive skills in children: asking them to generate messages versus having them select from preformulated messages or strategies. Also investigated was the approach of asking children to indicate their rationale for choosing a particular message. Using criteria of showing a developmental progression with age and positive correlation with social cognitive measures presumed to be relevant to persuasive skills, the present study suggests more success with message generation than with selection of preformulated messages. Elicitation of the rationale may prove a useful supplement to either of the former approaches.     

Information literacy for the information literate: A model and case study from the Wuhan UNESCO training the trainers in information literacy program

This article draws on the authors’ experiences in providing training for information seekers worldwide, from elementary school children to business professionals. Designed for the UNESCO Training the Trainers (TTT) in Information Literacy (IL) workshop in Wuhan, China in October 2008, the material offers a practical, structured framework for creating an information literacy program for trainers that is adaptable to changing learner needs and changing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. It includes examples and a case study using a basic course for paraprofessionals and beginning librarians. Based on input from participants at the Wuhan workshop, the article enhances the assessment portion of the presentation. The UNESCO program document listed a target audience of the less information literate ((UNESCO, 2008) Training the trainers in information literacy portal http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=25623&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html. Accessed 14.02.10). This paper, and in general the approach of the Wuhan session, focused on information literacy at an institutional rather than community level (Zhang, X. (Julia) (2009). Report of the UNESCO training-the-trainers in information literacy workshop, October 20–22, 2008, Wuhan, China. International Information & Library Review, 41(4) 273–276).     

The Consolidation of Two Campus Interlibrary Loan Units Into One: A Partnership Between Law and Main Campus

Until July 2009 Valparaiso University had two campus interlibrary loan units, one serving the main campus and the other serving the law school. In the wake of a projected 15–20% campuswide budget cut, the two campus libraries investigated ways to work together to reduce costs. The libraries came together with Online Computer Library Center and Atlas Systems, Inc., to consolidate the two separate units and ILLiad databases into one. This article discusses the reasons for merging two interlibrary loan units and the steps undertaken to combine two ILLiad systems.     

Film Books

Akira Kurosawa, SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982---$15.00)

Joseph McBride, HAWKS ON HAWKS (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982---$14.95/$6.95)

Ruth McCormick's (trans.) FASSBINDER(New York: Tanem Press, 1981---$15.95/$7.95)

“Twayne's Theatrical Arts Series”

G.K. Hall “Reference Publications in Film” series (Boston: G.K. Hall, l981---prices shown below)

Michael Haley, THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK ALBUM (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1981---$17.95)

James Curtis, BETWEEN FLOPS: A BIOGRAPHY OF PRESTON STURGES (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982---$15.95)