Concern about forecasts of national faculty shortages and the importance of local studies

The higher education popular press has published several forecasts of faculty shortages due to the mass retirement of expansion era faculty and the forecasted low numbers of doctoral graduates. These forecasts of national shortages encouraged a local study of faculty attrition in a four-campus university system. The local study considered two factors not accounted for in national studies but important locally: whether disciplinary field of study or campus location (urban or rural) has been associated with faculty attrition in the recent past and should therefore be considered when modeling demand for new faculty. Discipline and institution location were found to have no significant effect on the likelihood of faculty to continue employment from year to year when faculty age was controlled. Although retirement rate was expected to increase, no evidence of mass retirements producing an increased demand for new faculty was found. The lack of forecasted increases in demand for faculty locally led to reconsideration of national forecast studies, especially when it was determined that the age distribution of faculty across system campuses was similar to faculty nationwide. This paper questions whether there is sufficient evidence, as presented in the popular press, to support special action to increase the supply of faculty.Presented at the Thirty-first Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, San Francisco, May 26–29, 1991.     

The Mediating Role of Knowledge and Efficacy in the Effects of Communication on Political Participation

This study explicates the indirect process through which news media use influences political participation. Specifically, it investigates the role of political knowledge and efficacy as mediators between communication and online/offline political participation within the framework of an O-S-R-O-R (Orientation-Stimulus-Reasoning-Orientation-Response) model of communication effects. Results from structural equation modeling analysis support the idea that political knowledge and efficacy function as significant mediators. In addition, results expound the increasing importance of the Internet in facilitating political participation. Implications of findings, limitations of this study, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Research agenda for social Q&A

As new venues of information and tools for information access are emerging, people's online information seeking behavior is dramatically evolving. While a majority of well-established and classical models of information seeking and behavior are still valid, there is a growing need to study and explain novel information sources and information seeking behaviors that are unique to these sources. One emerging domain is social question and answer (Q&A). This article develops a research agenda for social Q&A, reviewing recent studies and identifying core issues, questions, and challenges.     

Shoe collar height effect on athletic performance,ankle joint kinematics and kinetics during unanticipated maximum-effort side-cutting performance

Side-step cutting manoeuvres comprise the coordination between planting and non-planting legs. Increased shoe collar height is expected to influence ankle biomechanics of both legs and possibly respective cutting performance. This study examined the shoe collar height effect on kinematics and kinetics of planting and non-planting legs during an unanticipated side-step cutting. Fifteen university basketball players performed maximum-effort side-step cutting to the left 45° direction or a straight ahead run in response to a random light signal. Seven successful cutting trials were collected for each condition. Athletic performance, ground reaction force, ankle kinematics and kinetics of both legs were analysed using paired t-tests. Results indicated that high-collar shoes resulted in less ankle inversion and external rotation during initial contact for the planting leg. The high-collar shoes also exhibited a smaller ankle range of motion in the sagittal and transverse planes for both legs, respectively. However, no collar effect was found for ankle moments and performance indicators including cutting performance time, ground contact time, propulsion ground reaction forces and impulses. These findings indicated that high-collar shoes altered ankle positioning and restricted ankle joint freedom movements in both legs, while no negative effect was found for athletic cutting performance.     

数字图书馆管理评价研究

文章通过分析数字图书馆管理评价对象及内容,选取适合的评价原则与方法,在国内外关于数字凰书馆管理评价指标体系的研究基础上,论述数字图书馆管理评价体系的建立与应用,提出数字图书馆管理评价指标体系中的一级和二级指标框架,并选取国家数字图书馆数字资源管理作为评价对象,进行实证研究。     

For whom the bell tolls: globalisation,social class and South Korea's international schools

This article discusses how in South Korea, English-medium international schools, initially established to educate foreign residents, have recently transformed themselves into private providers of global education for South Koreans. The article explains the social, economic and political circumstances under which the South Korean government has allowed this transformation to take place in response to the forces of globalisation as well as to South Korean elites' educational demand. The article argues that English-medium international schools are elite-class reproducing institutions. The role of English, one of the major imperatives of global capitalism, will also be discussed, as this language has been impinging on South Korea's education and labour market.     

Doing poststructural ethnography in the life history of dropouts in South Korea: methodological ruminations on subjectivity,positionality and reflexivity

This paper addresses the issue of positionality in researching the researcher’s own culture and discusses its epistemological implications. Drawing on the researcher’s own field experience in which she entered teenage cultural space, this paper is an attempt at a self‐reflexive analysis of the relationships between the researcher and the participants (teenage youths, former dropouts). In so doing, it aims to discuss the methodological significance of the researcher’s subjectivity, positionality and reflexivity. The paper unpacks the researcher’s journey with first‐person voices, intending to illuminate a poststructural thesis regarding the knower’s implicatedness, multiple and shifting subjectivities, and the negotiated and situationally contingent nature of stories.     

Quality of life of elderly Chinese immigrants: focusing on living arrangements and social capital

This study examines the relationship between living arrangements, social capital, and quality of life of elderly Chinese immigrants in the United States. For this purpose, data were collected from 205 Chinese immigrants aged 65 years and above who did not have any cognitive disorders and were living in Los Angeles County. The primary variables considered included demographic data, living arrangements, social capital, and the quality of life. Results showed that the quality of life of elderly Chinese immigrants was significantly influenced by their life with a spouse or children and traits of social capital, such as trust, partnership with the community, and political participation. Findings indicate that trust, partnership, political participation, and living with a spouse or children are closely related to the quality of life of elderly Chinese immigrants. This study highlights the importance of developing a community atmosphere and policy to enhance elderly Chinese immigrants’ social participation, trust, and life with family members to further improve their subjective quality of life. Results may have implications for elderly immigrants from other countries, as well.