Postgraduate coursework beyond the classroom: Issues in implementing flexible delivery

In Australia, new technologies for course delivery have coincided with rapid enrolment growth in postgraduate coursework programs. During 1995 we conducted a national study of flexible delivery in postgraduate education, by questionnaire and case study. We discovered an increasingly complex blend of delivery options, but only a modest uptake of electronic technologies. This paper examines the broad management implications, by addressing factors that inhibit implementation. Three issues are discussed: concern about academic standards, the impact on academic work, and cost and infrastructure requirements. We argue that the realisation of widespread flexible delivery of postgraduate education will depend on further attention to policy in these areas.     

Included? The Status of African American Scholars in the Discipline of Criminology and Criminal Justice Since 2004

This article provides a re-examination of the progress of African Americans in criminology/criminal justice doctoral programs since 2004. It focuses on African-American faculty, their scholarly research, and involvement in professional associations. Recent trends in African Americans enrolled in doctoral programs also are analyzed. Findings indicate that the representation of African-American faculty and doctoral students in criminology and criminal justice programs has increased although both continue to be under-represented in programs at predominantly white institutions. Evidence of increases in their contributions to the body of knowledge and service to professional associations was notable. The article concludes with strategies and recommendations for ensuring that inclusion continues to matter in the next decade.     

Beyond bad behaving brothers: productive performances of masculinities among college fraternity men

Research on fraternity men focuses almost exclusively on problematic behaviors such as homophobia and sexism, alcohol abuse, violence against women, sexual promiscuity, and the overrepresentation of members among campus judicial offenders. Consequently, little is known about those who perform masculinities in healthy and productive ways. Presented in this article are findings from a qualitative study of productive masculinities and behaviors among 50 undergraduate fraternity men from 44 chapters across the US and Canada. Findings offer insights into participants’ steadfast commitments to the fraternity’s espoused values; their acceptance and appreciation of members from a range of diverse backgrounds; strategies they employed to address bad behaviors (including sexism, racism, and homophobia) among chapter brothers; and the conditions that enabled them to behave in ways that contradict stereotypes concerning men in collegiate fraternities.     

Playing with Moon Sand: a narrative inquiry into a teacher’s experiences teaching alongside a student with a chronic illness

This paper inquires into the experiences of an early childhood educator named Claire who taught a young girl with a chronic illness at East Willows Elementary School, a western Canadian elementary school. Using narrative inquiry as the methodology, Claire’s experiences in her curriculum making alongside Madeline a young girl with Turner syndrome were explored and analyzed. In navigating through this curriculum around chronic illness, Claire negotiated liminal spaces between health and unhealth, sickness and wellness, capability and desire using stories of playful curriculum making. Through these liminal spaces, Claire created forward-looking stories of a new curriculum; a curriculum defined by playfulness, counterstories of play, the lived and planned curriculum, and the sharing of authority. This playful curriculum, this curriculum of play, became the negotiated story to live by for Claire and Madeline at East Willows Elementary School.     

Undistributing Work Through Writing: How Technical Writers Manage Texts in Complex Information Environments

This article presents findings from a recent study of mediated writing in a technical writing firm to examine distributed work conditions and how they affect the practices of individual technical writers. Distribution of labor, texts, and technologies for producing documentation creates complex information environments that writers must negotiate. In doing so, they practice two kinds of expertise central to technical writing as a profession—technological and rhetorical skill. This article examines how those skills are affected by distributed work.     

Understanding Student Evaluations of Teaching Quality: The Contributions of Class Attendance

Institutions of higher learning employ compulsory attendance policies with the expectation that these mandates enhance students' academic performance and perceptions of course quality. However, numerous empirical investigations demonstrate equivocal and often contradictory findings regarding the relationship between attendance and various markers of student achievement. The present investigation extends this research by exploring the utility of student ratings of the need to attend class in predicting their perceptions of teaching excellence after controlling for class size, instructor availability, and small-group interactions. As hypothesized, ratings of the need to attend predicted excellence while accounting for a significant 5.3% of the variance. Discussion and conclusions highlight the utility of class attendance in understanding students' evaluations of teaching and course quality.