Using Conjunctive Methods to Explore Factors Associated with On-Time Grade Attainment Among High Risk Youth

This study examines risk and protective factors associated with on-time grade attainment among a cohort of high risk elementary age youth 3?years post truancy intervention. Conjunctive Analysis of Case Configurations was used to identify dominant subpopulation profiles and assess distinctions in the likelihood of on-time grade completion among groups with unique combinations of characteristics. Comparisons of subpopulation profiles revealed substantial contextual variability in the influence of race, gender, service completion, psychosocial risk factors, and truancy. Findings indicate race is not influential across all grades but appears to be dependent on truancy level. Although psychosocial risk factors are not present for K-3^rd profiles, they are critical among 4-5^th graders, specifically lack of motivation. Findings from this study allow practitioners to better understand risk and protective factors influencing grade progression and aids in the development of individualized case management and intervention. Findings indicate better policies are needed to address early truancy.     

Information needs analysis to inform the development of a library and information service at the Marie Curie Centre,Newcastle upon Tyne,England

In the summer of 1997 the Marie Curie Centre, Newcastle approached the libraries of the Universities of Newcastle and Northumbria at Newcastle to assist in developing a library and information service (LIS) strategy. It was acknowledged that before the LIS strategy could be established preparatory investigation was needed to ensure the effective and efficient allocation of resources. A user needs analysis was conducted over a 3‐month period, including a literature search, questionnaire and interviews. The findings, which indicated that the appointment of a professional librarian was crucial, have ensured that the LIS being developed is underpinned by a strong evidence base.     

Connecting knowledge(s) to practice: a Bernsteinian theorisation of a collaborative coach learning community project

Collaborative action learning was undertaken in response to the growing criticisms of formal coach education. Since it is strongly felt that we can no longer merely commentate on what is not happening in terms of coach learning, a key requirement now is to demonstrate there are other options. The Coach Learning and Development (CLAD) programme was devised and implemented at a community rugby club in Wiltshire, England. The CLAD programme supported volunteers to engage more with contemporary designs for learning, acknowledging a fundamental problem with formal coach education in the way learning (and knowledge) is decontextualised. The theoretical endeavours of Basil Bernstein are introduced to Sport Coaching Research (SCR) for the first time, specifically the ‘pedagogical device’ to illustrate a process of recontextualisation. Findings suggest that the CLAD programme was successful in encouraging coaches to engage with more positive forms of coaching pedagogy. Therefore, the findings draw on the pivotal outcomes of the CLAD programme to re-configure more successful outcomes for coach education, coach learning and volunteers rights to knowledge.     

Career choices and characteristics of African-American undergraduates majoring in criminal justice at historically black colleges and universities

Recent research has shown that African-Americans at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have increasingly selected criminal justice/criminology as their field of study and career choice (Gabbidon and Penn 1999). To explore this trend, the authors replicated the work of Krimmel and Tartaro (1999) by surveying 284 undergraduate criminal justice majors at several HBCUs; the study was designed to investigate whether the students' reasons for selecting criminal justice as a major and career choice were in line with those of the earlier study conducted at predominantly white institutions. Our findings show that, while students at the two types of universities seem to select criminal justice as a major for the same reasons-including the interesting nature of the subject matter and its relevance to the real world-undergraduates at HBCUs reported stronger attitudes towards entering the career for economic as well as for altruistic reasons such as protecting the Constitution, fighting oppression, and helping people solve problems.     

The presence of African American scholarship in early American criminology texts (1918–1960)

This paper reviews the results of a citation analysis conducted to determine the extent of references to African American scholarship in American criminology texts published between 1918 and 1960. The analysis showed that African American graduates from the University of Chicago's “Chicago School”, including Charles Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Monroe Work, and Earl R. Moses, were cited most often. They were usually cited in discussions of either race or culture areas and crime. African American scholars' discussions of the effects of social, economic, and political conditions such as slavery, segregation, racism and oppression on crime and criminality, especially among African Americans, were generally not cited. These findings suggest that while claims that African American scholarship cannot be found in mainstream publications might be somewhat overstated as they relate to early American criminology texts, the most important themes found in the writings of African Americans were excluded.     

Undistributing Work Through Writing: How Technical Writers Manage Texts in Complex Information Environments

This article presents findings from a recent study of mediated writing in a technical writing firm to examine distributed work conditions and how they affect the practices of individual technical writers. Distribution of labor, texts, and technologies for producing documentation creates complex information environments that writers must negotiate. In doing so, they practice two kinds of expertise central to technical writing as a profession—technological and rhetorical skill. This article examines how those skills are affected by distributed work.     

Understanding equity as an asset to national interest: developing a social contract analysis of policy

Alongside the influence of market-based reforms in education policy has been the growth of policy that has largely been overlooked – those that outline social contracts. This paper draws on policies that connect with equity as a way of illustrating this social contract turn in policy and develops a conceptualisation of social contracts as they apply to education policy. The argument provides three principles that underpin social contracts, including informed consent, negotiation and accountability. This paper applies these principles to three levels of social contract. At the first level are broad social contracts, which are associated with debates about the kinds of things that states should expect from its citizens, and the things that citizens could expect from governments and the state. The second level of social contract is an institutional or field-based social contract, which spells out the obligations and connections between a specific field and other fields. This level names a kind of social contract that is often exemplified in policies or statements by specific institutions. The third level of social contract deals with contract-like mechanisms embedded in fields that make tangible the obligations and expectations of citizens in fulfilling the expectations of fields.     

Cross‐field effects and temporary social fields: a case study of the mediatization of recent Australian knowledge economy policies

This paper utilizes Bourdieu’s conceptual frame to examine the mediatized effects of policy processes concerned with the growth and support of knowledge industries in Australia. These policies span education, science, research and other knowledge industries (such as venture capital firms and intellectual property law). The paper argues that some policy processes are best represented as temporary social fields. The nature of these fields can be described by the kinds of cross‐field effects that they produce. A case study of an Australian knowledge economy policy, The chance to change, and associated policy processes demonstrates the broad analytic capacities of Bourdieu’s conceptual frame for policy analysis, when combined with the concepts of cross‐field effects and temporary social field developed here.