Assessments of Student–Teacher Relationships in Residential Treatment Center Schools

Students in residential treatment center (RTC) schools are likely to have histories of extreme or ongoing relational trauma (e.g., abuse and neglect by primary caregivers), have substantial interpersonal and relationship problems, and exhibit many high-risk behaviors. Accordingly, these students may have particular difficulty forming positive relationships with teachers, yet student–teacher relationship quality in RTC schools has not been empirically studied. This study examines links between RTC school students' assessments of their relationships with teachers and their perceptions of self and others. Participants were 113 students in 2 RTC schools from 5th to 12th grade. Results indicate that male and female RTC students' positive perceptions (of self and others) are linked to positive assessments of their relationships with teachers. However, for girls in RTC schools, negative perceptions of self are linked to less positive assessments of the teacher–student relationship. Implications are discussed.     

Practices of boundary-work in the collaboration between principals and private sponsors in England’s academy schools

This article presents one of the few qualitative studies to empirically examine the collaboration between private sponsors and principals in the context of England’s academy schools policy. It uses the concept of boundary-work to illuminate the multiple dynamics involved in the collaboration between principals and business sponsors. By analysing qualitative interviews with principals and sponsors from a local authority case study the article reveals the working relationship between these actors to be characterised by three boundary-work practices: drawing, negotiating and contesting boundaries. These practices are described before exploring their implications for existing understandings of England’s academies policy. This analysis directly answers calls in the literature for in-depth case study research which explores the collaboration between academy sponsors and principals, and the article’s interpretivist approach to boundary-work is shown to be a valuable theoretical approach which has received little attention in studies investigating the role of private actors in education. The article concludes by advocating for more studies of education policy to use boundary-work as a lens through which to understand the role being played by new actors in education, and argues that this perspective would be particularly valuable for examining the context of England’s increasingly diversifying schooling landscape.     

UX and Your Library: A Scalable Model

User experience is immeasurably important for your patrons as they access your Web site. This article presents tips and strategies for testing user experience, suggests a number of different popular technologies and tools that are used in the UX field, and lays out a plan for sharing and utilizing data to make improvements on your Web site. It is the goal of this article to present a model for improving Web site usability that can be scaled up or down depending on the resources available at your institution.     

Developing the Librarians' Role in Supporting Grant Applications and Reducing Waste in Research: Outcomes From a Literature Review and Survey in the NIHR Research Design Service

ABSTRACT

Librarians and information specialists' involvement during the development of grant applications for external funding can save researchers' time, provide specialist support, and contribute to reducing avoidable waste in research. This article presents a survey of information specialists working for the National Institute for Health Research's Research Design Service within English applied health services research and a scoping review to identify other examples of librarians supporting grant applications. The survey found that support included: verifying proposed research has not already been performed; searching literature to provide background for the project; and advising on or writing systematic review methods. The scoping review found three examples where librarians were involved: in writing sections of the application; conducting reviews, and becoming a co-applicant. We recommend librarians engage with researchers by checking whether search requests are to support an application and by becoming familiar with resources and techniques to support grant proposal development.     

The cultural politics of religious defiance in Islam: how pseudonyms and media can destigmatize

Religious defiance that results in publicly leaving religion (apostasy) is an enormous taboo in Arab communities despite the recent surge in apostates’ numbers. Drawing from research on stigma, apostasy, authorship, and critical studies, I explore how a transnational Arab community, which emerges in the crossfire among democratizing politics of self-expression, regulation of public identity by digital technologies, and vast opposition networks, uses digital technologies and the politics of naming to destigmatize its identity. Extending the literatures of stigma and apostasy to ex-Muslims, I conclude that this case reveals religious and nonreligious Arabs’ common struggle against violence and the need for structural changes to protect digital technologies’ emancipatory potential.     

Color,Caste and the Public Sphere

Broadcast network newsrooms are powerful gatekeepers, setting cultural standards and attitudes for America at large via the stories they tell and the images they project. In 1968, the federal Kerner Commission chastised American news media for ignoring race, and seeing through the “white man’s eyes” and speaking from “the white perspective.” Grounded in critical and cultural studies and organizational theory, this study analyzes the experiences of 23 post-Civil Rights generation black journalists working in broadcast newsrooms who continue to struggle against anti-black cultural norms and attitudes at great physical, psychological and financial cost.     

Evidence of alphabetic knowledge in writing: connections to letter and word identification skills in preschool and kindergarten

The writing skills of 286 children (157 female and 129 male) were studied by comparing name writing and letter writing scores from preschool to kindergarten with letter and word reading scores over the same time period. Two rubrics for scoring writing were compared to determine if scores based on multiple components (i.e., letter formation, orientation on the vertical axis, left–right orientation, and correct letter sequencing) would better reflect differences in children’s writing knowledge in preschool and kindergarten than rubrics composed of one component (i.e., letter formation only). While developmental changes in writing scores were found, little additional information was provided by multiple component scoring rubrics compared to the single component rubric. Letter writing scores were more strongly related to letter and word reading scores than name writing scores but neither writing score was predictive of growth. Implications of the findings for intentional/systematic writing instruction in preschool curricula are discussed.