The role of foreign language programmes in internationalising learning and teaching in higher education

This article proposes that foreign language programmes have a central role to play in the internationalisation of learning and teaching in the university. Looking at institution-wide programmes in the UK, it cites two main reasons for this claim: University language programmes teach multilingual and multicultural groups in which students from a range of disciplines may trial the skills required of international graduates. Furthermore, language programmes employ student-centred forms of learning in response to the heterogeneity of their student body. Their composition and innovative pedagogies, it is argued, suggest the university-wide foreign language programme as a central discipline of internationalisation which develops good practice to be rolled out across the university. The article describes the learning opportunities international language classrooms offer and presents an overview of the pedagogies employed in institution-wide language programmes.     

Does training matter? Comparing the behaviour management strategies of pre-service teachers in a four-year program and those in a one-year program

Survey-based research was conducted with Australian pre-service teachers to identify the classroom management strategies that they would employ, their confidence in employing them, and the effectiveness of the strategies. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify significant differences in these variables between pre-service teachers in the final year of a four-year teacher training course and pre-service teachers undertaking a one-year, stand-alone teaching program. The results of this study indicate that the most frequently reported strategies by all the Australian pre-service primary teachers surveyed were rewards and initial corrections. The pre-service teachers were selective in the type of corrective strategies they would employ, with a preference for relatively less intrusive reactive strategies. All of the pre-service teachers here found rewards and preventative strategies to be the most effective. The only significant differences found between the four-year trained and one-year trained pre-service teachers were around preventative strategies. Specifically, four-year trained pre-service teachers employ preventative strategies significantly more often than pre-service teachers in the one-year teaching course. Similarly, four-year trained pre-service teachers are significantly more confident in using preventative strategies than those in the one-year course. The implications of the results for teacher education programs are considered.     

Changes in Rural Libraries and Librarianship: A Comparative Survey

This article offers a repeat of a 2000 survey of rural librarians and how they view librarianship, libraries, and the future of both. The purpose of the 2007 survey was to look for changes and ask questions about community partnerships, staffing, and financial information. The researchers found many similarities between the surveys but a number of distinct changes in behavior and attitudes emerged. These included the shift towards viewing the library as more of a service than a repository of materials, increased dissatisfaction with pay and economic issues; an increase in MLS degree holders; and a trend towards the library being viewed as less vital to the community. The 2007 results showed that almost half of rural libraries engage in community partnerships and that the average rural librarian earns less than $12/hour and has an operating budget of less than $30,000. The changes and results are analyzed along with suggestions for future research.     

Organizing for survival and social change: The case of streetwise

This study explores how members of StreetWise organize for survival and social change. Through the publication of a street journal by the same name, StreetWise provides employment opportunities for men and women without homes. Using feminist principles of organizing as a backdrop, we highlight the discursive moves that (1) reinforce StreetWise's standpoint as counter to the practices and structures of the dominant culture, and (2) provide alternative ways of thinking about issues of poverty and homelessness. We highlight tensions that emerge between the dialectic of survival and social change, and in so doing position StreetWise as an “alternative discourse community” that develops counterdiscourses amidst cultural and material constraints. We work toward locating how members negotiate organizational irrationalities through moral deliberation.     

Weak Ties in Networked Communities

Communities with high levels of social capital are likely to have a higher quality of life than communities with low social capital. This is due to the greater ability of such communities to organize and mobilize effectively for collective action because they have high levels of social trust, dense social networks, and well-established norms of mutuality (the major features of social capital). Communities with “bridging” social capital (weak ties across groups) as well as “bonding” social capital (strong ties within groups) are the most effective in organizing for collective action. People who belong to multiple groups act as bridging ties. When people with bridging ties use communication media, such as the Internet, they enhance their capability to educate community members and to organize, as needed, for collective action. This article summarizes evidence from stratified household survey data in Blacksburg, VA, showing that people with weak (bridging) ties across groups have higher levels of community involvement, civic interest, and collective efficacy than people without bridging ties among groups. Moreover, heavy Internet users with bridging ties have higher social engagement, use the Internet for social purposes, and have been attending more local meetings and events since going online than heavy Internet users with no bridging ties. These findings may suggest that the Internet—in the hands of bridging individuals–is a tool for enhancing social relations and information exchange, and for increasing face-to-face interaction, all of which help to build both bonding and bridging social capital in communities.     

Always Articulating: Theorizing on Mobile and Wireless Technologies

Through this article we theorize on the nature and effects of articulation work relative to the take-up and use of information and communications technologies (ICT). Articulation work is “work that enables other work”: that which links people, processes, and technologies within organizations. Articulation work in organizations is both common and too often invisible from a managerial or budgetary perspective. Drawing on data from a study of the introduction and implementation of mobile computing technologies into criminal justice organizations, we highlight two findings: (1) There exist ongoing but unmet articulation needs present in any organization or work system. (2) Articulation is cumulative. We find, that as work becomes more complex (such as adding new work tasks and using new technologies), there is more articulation needed. These findings raise issues with assessing the costs of articulation on individuals, and making arrangements to accommodate explicit and implicit articulation in organizational work, particularly around the take-up and ongoing use of ICT-based systems.     

Why Open Source software can succeed

The paper discusses three key economic problems raised by the emergence of Open Source: motivation, co-ordination, and diffusion. First, the movement took off through the activity of a community that did not follow profit motivations. Second, a hierarchical co-ordination emerged without proprietary rights. Third, Open Source systems diffused in environments dominated by proprietary standards. The paper shows that recent developments in the theory of diffusion of technologies with network externality may help to explain these phenomena. A simulation model based on heterogeneous agents is developed in order to identify the relevant factors in the diffusion of the technology.