The relationship of campus crime to campus and student characteristics

This research draws upon merged national databases containing federal crime statistics, community demographic data, and campus characteristics. The study displays the trends in campus crime since 1974, and using 1990 data, examines the relationships between three measures of campus crime and 23 predictors developed for this study. The results show that campus rates of both violent crime and property crime are falling, especially since 1985. Moreover, students are considerably safer on campus than in the cities and communities surrounding them. The lowest average crime rates are found at two-year colleges, while the highest overall rates are at medical schools and health science centers. None of the community characteristics, including community crime and poverty rates, are significantly associated with campus crime. While campus organizational measures in general are more highly related to campus crime than are student characteristics, we find differences in the patterns of variables associated with violent crime versus property crime. Factors associated with property crime are partially consistent with existing theory on criminal activity. Factors associated with violent crime are more complex and difficult to predict.An earlier version of this paper was the winner of the regional Best Paper Award from the North East AIR annual meeting in Bolton Landing, N.Y., November 1993. It was presented again at the Association for Institutional Research Forum, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 1994.     

Faculty experience of rudeness in Scottish higher education: dealing with rudeness from students and colleagues.

This paper investigated rudeness experienced by academic staff from students, co-workers and senior staff members. The focus of much of the rudeness literature in an educational setting has been on the student experience of rudeness, predominantly in the classroom. The aim of the current study was to focus on the experience of academic staff rather than students, and to broaden consideration of rudeness beyond the classroom, to include e-mail. Using a mixed-methods questionnaire, with both closed and open questions, rudeness perception, impact and response was examined across a sample of 122 academic staff from Scottish Higher Education institutions. The study examined relationships between personality, stress, job satisfaction, level of rudeness and the impact of rudeness on staff. The qualitative segment explored responses to rude e-mails across three sources; student, colleague and senior colleague. The results indicated that academic staff reported similar levels of rudeness from students, co-workers and senior colleagues. Faculty who reported high levels of neuroticism were more likely to report a negative impact of rudeness. Academic staff also reported that their response to rudeness could differ according to the instigator: a greater proportion of staff reported that they would be likely to reprimand a student, in comparison to a colleague, for rudeness. Staff were more likely to seek an informal resolution to rudeness with a co-worker, rather than a student. This paper highlights the potential importance of individual characteristics in assessing the impact of rudeness on faculty and indicates that rudeness may come from several sources in academia.     

How young people respond to learning spaces outside school: A sociocultural perspective

This article focuses on educational enterprises outside the formal sector, such as museums, botanical gardens and interactive science centres. International research is drawn on to illuminate how design, culture, educational strategies and settings combine to affect the way in which young people respond to experiences on offer, leading to analysis of the impact of such settings in promoting learning, and the likely implications for those who staff such venues. Aikenhead’s concept of the educator as ‘culture broker’ is developed to suggest ways in which learning might be best supported. It envisages a shift from ‘delivery’ strategies targeted at large groups towards approaches which focus on what learners choose to know about using dialogue between children and ‘known and trusted people’. Analysis of observed responses in various settings is undertaken from a sociocultural perspective using the notion of communities of practice. Implications for the roles of education managers and their staff in further research are developed.     

Being an Artist Teacher: A Liberating Identity?

Education as a liberating and democratic process remains an aim and belief in discourses within the field and beyond. The arts also have a tradition in which ‘artistic freedom’ is valued even if what constitutes artistic freedom is contested. In this article an educational discourse in which dialogue is considered a means to personal and collective liberation through education is highlighted and related to ‘artistic freedom’ and the dual roles of artist and teacher, in which learners and teachers are encouraged to contribute to and change culture as well as study and absorb it. Conceptualisations of the artist teacher and professional development and practices associated with these are considered to open up creative possibilities for art teachers without undermining other positive aspects of identity as a teacher and practitioner.