Homophobic and transphobic bullying: barriers and supports to school intervention

This study explores the perceived barriers and supports identified by school staff in tackling homophobic and transphobic bullying, using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model as a framework. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from five separate second-level/high schools (two designated disadvantaged schools, and three non-disadvantaged schools), within an area of Dublin, Ireland. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the resulting data. Findings indicated that the main barriers in tackling homophobic and transphobic bullying included students’ perceived discomfort in discussing their sexuality with teachers, teachers’ discomfort in discussing issues (including an associated lack of training), a lack of priority given to these types of bullying, and parental views on homosexuality. Perceived supports included consistency in dealing with these types of bullying, appropriate training, and support from management. Relationships were also evidenced between some perceived barriers and supports, with the absence of these factors being perceived as a barrier, while their presence was perceived as a support. Findings are considered within the context of previous research. The strengths and limitations of the study are discussed, as are its practice implications, and implications for possible future research.     

Students’ unions,consumerism and the neo-liberal university

This article explores the economic relationships between individual students’ unions and their wider institutions, and the ways in which they articulate with a pervasive consumerist agenda across the higher education sector. We draw on data from a UK-wide study to argue that students’ unions have an ambivalent relationship with consumerist discourses: on the one hand, they often reject the premise that the higher education student is best conceptualised as a consumer; yet, on the other, they frequently accept aspects of consumerism as a means of, for example, trying to protect their independence and autonomy. We explore whether this particular form of positioning with respect to consumerism is best conceptualised as a form of resistance, or whether it has become extremely difficult for students’ unions to take up any other position in a system that is driven by market logic.     

Parents' role in the academic motivation of students with gifts and talents

Parents play a key role in developing their children's academic motivation, and parents of children with gifts and talents also may face additional parenting challenges that are less commonly faced by parents of average‐ability learners whose needs are more readily met in the school setting. School psychologists may be charged with addressing these issues, despite having little or no training on the needs of families of high‐ability learners. We use the lens provided by the self‐determination theory of motivation to consider how social–environmental climates created by parents can promote or impede the academic motivation of students with gifts and talents. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Three Reasons Samples Become Separated From Their Populations in Communication Research

There are three reasons why probability samples often become separated from their putative populations in mass communication research. First, researchers sometimes believe populations must surely exist when in fact they do not exist. Yet they relentlessly pursue these phantom populations rather than heed classic warning signs that something is wrong. Second, researchers often struggle with underpowered samples. Rather than render those samples using more appropriate qualitative methods, they plow ahead using misapplied statistical methods and thus never inferentially connect to a population. Third, researchers frequently and incorrectly use random assignment rather than random selection as a sample method. This, in turn, can leave a sample unconnected to a population if the population can be drawn only through random selection. As obvious as these three errors are, researchers nonetheless stumble into them regularly. We examine why that is and what researchers can do to avoid these errors.     

The Future of Academic Journals

Academic journals have traditionally provided disciplinary forums for scholarly communication (i.e., vetting, legitimating, and disseminating new ideas). Digitization is affecting scholarly communication and academic journals. Two effects are the bundling of journals by publishers and the growing variety of formats that open up new avenues of dissemination. Both effects have disrupted the traditional roles and relationships of scholars and their institutions, publishers and libraries in the processes of scholarly communication, including the significance of academic journals as a format.     

Controversial Rap Themes,Gender Portrayals and Skin Tone Distortion: A Content Analysis of Rap Music Videos

A content analysis of rap music videos aired on BET, MTV, and VH1 examined the occurrence of controversial themes, gender differences, and skin tone distortion. The results of this study found that current rap music videos have placed an emphasis on themes of materialism and misogyny. Additionally, men and women in the videos differ in their portrayal of these themes. Specifically, female characters are significantly more likely to appear as objects of sexuality. Men and women also differ in their appearance with more African American females appearing to have Eurocentric features. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Libraries Across the Education Continuum: Relationships Between Library Services at the University of Montana and Regional High Schools

This study explores the library instructional programming and resources of high school library media centers in western Montana with the intent of documenting and understanding both the services provided to and the experiences of first-year college students at the University of Montana. Results from the survey (n = 22) and site visits (n = 10) reveal wide variation in the levels and types of library instructional programming provided at the library media centers, including media specialists’ perceptions of high school students’ information literacy skills. However, consistency was seen in the media specialists’ collection management strategies and in collection content. The results suggest implications for first-year library programming and highlight opportunities for further 9–16 collaboration and study.     

Sites unseen: Ethnographic research in a textual community

Recent writing on the subject of ethnography has sought to examine the field not only as a place where research is carried out, but also as a methodological construction. While this writing emphasizes the extent to which people's experiences of community and culture can no longer be necessarily understood in relation to geographically based locations, it often continues to assert the "legacy of the field" (Clifford, 1997, p. 88) and its accompanying expectations and practices. In this article, I draw on my experience of doing ethnographic research in the textual community of 'zines in order to challenge the assumption that ethnographic fieldwork is necessarily dependent on physical displacement, and face-to-face encounters with our research participants. Specific attention is paid to the epistemological and ethical issues that emerge when one chooses to carry out research in textual communities. Intentionally foregrounding the parallels between the textual community of 'zines and the virtual communities associated with the Internet, this article also raises important questions for ethnographers carrying out research in networked environments.     

Phonological skills and comprehension failure: A test of the phonological processing deficit hypothesis

Shankweiler and colleagues argue that text comprehensionproblems in young children arise from phonological processingdifficulties. Their work has focused on children with poor wordreading ability. We investigated this hypothesis for children whoexperience comprehension difficulties in the presence of age-appropriate word reading skills. We found that good and poorcomprehenders performed comparably on various measures ofphonological processing and differed on a task that made greaterdemands on working memory, Bradley and Bryant's odd-word-outtask. In a final study, hierarchical regression analyses supportedthis distinction: the odd-word-out task was a strong predictor ofreading comprehension performance even after IQ, vocabulary and single word reading had been controlled for, but a lessmemory-dependent phonological task was not. These studiessupport previous work which indicates that poor comprehenders'problems arise from higher-level processing difficulties.