The Early Literacy Support Programme (ELS) and the blend and clash of national educational policy ideologies in England

In this article we consider the development of key policy issues in England, related to the area of literacy learning and children who are considered to have difficulties in literacy in their early years. We trace the tensions which have arisen since the 1980s between different policies and practices in these areas. These tensions include pressures to raise standards of literacy and to support children with difficulties, and the establishment of a prescribed curriculum for young children. In particular, we focus on the blend and clash of national educational policy ideals in areas related to literacy and children who have been categorised as having ‘special educational needs’, and how these have influenced the development of the Early Literacy Support Programme (ELS) (DfES, 2001 Department for Education and Skills 2001a Early Literacy Support Programme, materials to support teachers working in partnership with teaching assistants London DfES  [Google Scholar]a; 2001 Department for Education and Skills 2001b Early Literacy Support Programme, session materials for teaching assistants London DfES  [Google Scholar]b). This is a programme set up by the Department for Education and Science in England for children in Year 1, aged 5 to 6 years old.     

Border work: Teachers’ expressions of their literacy-related professional development needs in a First Nations school

This paper reports on a case study of teachers’ expressions of their literacy-related professional development needs in a First Nations school located in Ontario, Canada. The paper construes the work of the teachers as “border work” and argues that their literacy teaching work was complex and tied to an ongoing legacy of colonialism. Four interrelated themes are discussed. The paper recommends improving compensation and job security for educators in First Nations schools and supporting them to see themselves as knowledgeable professionals who can entertain sophisticated notions of literacy that consider its relationship to situation including culture.     

Differentiated instruction in small schools

Rural areas in the alpine regions suffer from dwindling student numbers. Differentiated instruction (DI) could help improve the teaching culture by allowing instructors to better adapt to heterogeneous student groups. At the beginning of a combined research and school improvement project, a survey of 162 teachers and 1180 students was conducted to obtain an overview of the types of DI that are currently practiced. In addition, we examined the school conditions that supported the implementation of DI. This cross-sectional study demonstrates a difference in practices between teachers with more- and less-developed DI cultures, and it was determined that team collaboration that includes pedagogical topics enhances teachers' use of DI.     

e-GovQual: A multiple-item scale for assessing e-government service quality

A critical element in the evolution of governmental services through the internet is the development of sites that better serve the citizens' needs. To deliver superior service quality, we must first understand how citizens perceive and evaluate online. Citizen assessment is built on defining quality, identifying underlying dimensions, and conceptualizing measurements of these e-government services. In this article an e-gov service quality model (e-GovQual) is conceptualized and then a multiple-item scale for measuring e-gov service quality of governmental sites where citizens seek either information or service, is developed, refined, validated confirmed and tested.     

Gender and digital divide 2000-2008 in two low-income economies in Sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya and Somalia in official statistics

The Beijing World Conference on Women held in 1995 by the United Nations member states, approved strategies for improving women's access to and use of new communication technologies. The aim of this paper is to retrieve official statistics for the years 2000-2008 with regard to sex differences, gender and digital divide (specifically concerning telecommunication technologies) in two low-income economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya and Somalia. This paper reveals that official statistics on sex discrepancies and, the gender divide regarding access, use and benefits of telecommunications are still almost totally lacking for the countries in view. However, the digital divide is successively closing, and the telecommunication process in Kenya was quite rapid at the end of the period. Official statistics from Somalia are difficult to comprehend due to the absence of official data and a lack of evidence-based knowledge. Fifteen years after the Beijing Conference in 1995 there is still a lack of comprehensive statistics regarding new communication technologies for low-income economies such as Kenya and Somalia.     

U.S.-Produced Entertainment Media and Attitude Toward Americans

This study examines the relationship between Singaporean college students'attitude toward Americans and their exposure to U.S. exported entertainment media.

The 328 Singaporean college student participants expressed relatively neutral attitudes toward Americans and reported high consumption of U.S. entertainment media (movies, television shows, magazines, music). Exposure to American media was found to correlate positively with student attitudes toward Americans.

In contrast to some media critics' contention that exposure to U.S. media fosters negative attitudes among citizens of other countries, this study suggests that U.S. entertainment may influence attitude toward Americans in a positive direction.     

Theory talk in the library science scholarly literature: An exploratory analysis

In the discipline of library and information science (LIS), a qualitative analysis of the meaningful use of theory in contemporary scholarly literature is critical to helping scholars expand their repertoire of knowledge about various theories and helping them make informed decisions about how to skillfully integrate theory in their research. This study explored how theory was presented and talked about in seven prominent library science-focused journals from 2009 to 2011. Through a process of analytic induction, categories representing a continuum of theory talk were identified and their relationships examined. Three main types of theory talk in library research are defined, ranging from minimal (theory dropping), moderate (theory conversation), to major (theory generation). The categories and their relationships generate a rich discussion about the intensity and degree to which theory is being discussed and used in a less-examined subset of library and information science research journals. This research contributes both an explanatory structure and substantive discussion regarding theory use in library science to the professional literature.     

Text reference service: Teens' perception and use

Focus group interviews were conducted to investigate how teen library users perceive and use text reference service. Findings indicate that teens have a mixed attitude toward the service, and they anticipate using it primarily for imposed queries. Teens' perception of three aspects of the service is also discussed: response time, librarians' use of texting abbreviations, and the impact of texting constraints. Strategies are provided to increase awareness, motivate use, and meet expectations. Findings will help inform libraries' text reference practice, providing them with a clear understanding of how teens can benefit from the service, and how their information needs can be fulfilled to their satisfaction. Such an understanding will then lead libraries to develop more effective strategies to promote and deliver library services to teens, strengthen the role libraries play in teens' information-seeking process, and establish a positive and sustaining relationship between teens and libraries.