Creating a ‘world class’ programme: reciprocity and constraint in networked global collaboration

The article reflects on the construction of a common Master’s programme across four universities located on four continents, in order to explore the role of networks in international educational collaboration. The study draws on the documented processes of the principal members of the programme team. It is presented as a case study of the development of the programme that uses ideas drawn from actor‐network theory to draw attention to the conjunction of human and non‐human actors that shaped the resulting web‐based courses. Constraints arising from major institutional and systemic obstacles were addressed through the effects of the actor‐network. The reciprocity of action and de‐centring of individual activity made possible through the collaboration enabled the human actors to sustain a level of innovation within their own institutions that would not have been possible through them acting alone.     

Lifelong learning,higher education and active citizenship: from rhetoric to action

This introductory paper provides the background to the Cape Town Statement on Characteristic Elements of a Lifelong Learning Higher Education Institution that appears in this Journal. It describes the journey of a network of adult educators and academics from the North, South, East and West through contested terrain from Hamburg, to Paris, Mumbai and Cape Town in 2000. At a conference held in Cape Town in October 2000, the delegates concluded that there were six essential characteristics of a higher education lifelong learning institution. This paper reviews the essential elements of these characteristics and comments on the journey of their development.     

Lifelong Learning Within Higher Education in South Africa: Emancipatory Potential?

In South Africa under apartheid higher education was inaccessible to the majority. This article argues that in the new South Africa there is an opportunity to redress this situation and promote equity though lifelong learning. This would involve greatly widening access and providing programmes to develop broadly applicable abilities such as computer literacy and problem-solving skills, which would increase the economic competitiveness and personal empowerment of learners. At the same time, the author argues, new educational approaches are needed to promote active citizenship.     

Masking,mediators and agency: bilingual children and learning to read

This paper begins with a discussion of some of the key insights of recent sociocultural research that consider bilingual children and learning to read and culminates in a discussion of Syncretic Literacy Studies (SLS). It then presents data from an ethnographic study that focused on the learning experiences of a small group of Year Three Bangladeshi‐heritage pupils during 1 year of their schooling in order to problematise some of the claims made in recent sociocultural work and in SLS, particularly the focus on children's agency. The findings from the study suggest that (a) there are limits to children's agency that are not recognised in recent work and in SLS; (b) that identity has an important role to play: children can successfully mask what they cannot do as readers in order to present a particular identity in the mainstream classroom; and (c) that the access some children have to mediators may be limited and can change over time.     

Written versus oral administration of a social-emotional self-report test for children: Does method of execution make a difference?

This study examined administration method (standard written administration vs. oral administration by an examiner) as a variable in influencing children's self-report test scores. Subjects included 139 students in grades 3–6, randomly assigned to one or the other administration condition. Subjects completed the Internalizing Disorders Evaluation Scale for Children (IDESC) according to the assigned administration method. Internal consistency estimates of each group were essentially similar. Mean IDESC scores of the two groups did not differ significantly from either a statistical or practical standpoint, based on t-test and effect size calculations. Results suggest that method of administration did not affect test performance. Implications for child assessment and future research are discussed.     

Critical human rights,citizenship, and democracy education: Entanglements and regenerations

International Review of Education -     

Lifelong Learning Within Higher Education in South Africa: Emancipatory Potential?

In South Africa under apartheid higher education was inaccessible to the majority. This article argues that in the new South Africa there is an opportunity to redress this situation and promote equity though lifelong learning. This would involve greatly widening access and providing programmes to develop broadly applicable abilities such as computer literacy and problem-solving skills, which would increase the economic competitiveness and personal empowerment of learners. At the same time, the author argues, new educational approaches are needed to promote active citizenship.     

Institutional change in a transitional economy: the reform of economics higher education in Mongolia

This paper discusses the problems of implementing a European Union Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States (of the former Soviet Union) (EU/TACIS) project to reform Mongolian Economics Higher Education with the ultimate objective of improving the process of economic policy making. It emphasises the importance of historical, economic and administrative context for the design and implementation of project activities. Project activities are reviewed and the problems of implementation discussed in terms of the aid relationship and the particular circumstances of transition economies. The paper concludes that, while the project's immediate objectives in terms of curriculum reform have been achieved, the sustainable change necessary to deliver the central, long-term objective remains elusive.     

Assessment of Customer Service in Academic Health Care Libraries (ACSAHL): an instrument for measuring customer service

OBJECTIVES: In a pilot study, the library had good results using SERVQUAL, a respected and often-used instrument for measuring customer satisfaction. The SERVQUAL instrument itself, however, received some serious and well-founded criticism from the respondents to our survey. The purpose of this study was to test the comparability of the results of SERVQUAL with a revised and shortened instrument modeled on SERVQUAL. The revised instrument, the Assessment of Customer Service in Academic Health Care Libraries (ACSAHL), was designed to better assess customer service in academic health care libraries. METHODS: Surveys were sent to clients who had used the document delivery services at three academic medical libraries in Texas over the previous twelve to eighteen months. ACSAHL surveys were sent exclusively to clients at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern, while the client pools at the two other institutions were randomly divided and provided either SERVQUAL or ACSAHL surveys. RESULTS: Results indicated that more respondents preferred the shorter ACSAHL instrument to the longer and more complex SERVQUAL instrument. Also, comparing the scores from both surveys indicated that ACSAHL elicited comparable results. CONCLUSIONS: ACSAHL appears to measure the same type of data in similar settings, but additional testing is recommended both to confirm the survey's results through data replication and to investigate whether the instrument applies to different service areas.