Does School Admission by Zoning Affect Educational Inequality? A Study of Family Background Effect in Estonia,Finland, and Sweden

We indicate the size of family background effects in Sweden, Finland, and Estonia – countries that differ in both the rhetoric and extensiveness of the system-level school choice policies. Family background effect is defined as the dependence of student achievement on family background characteristics, such as parental education, income, and social status. The number of books at home is used as a proxy when operationalising family background, and its effect is measured as a percentage of individual-level PISA scores. Fixed-effect regression results reveal that family background remains a powerful determinant in the educational results of 15-year-old students in all three cases, being largest in Sweden. Furthermore, we show how the family background effect is moderated by school-level choice policy, that is, how students and schools are matched. The analysis reveals that zoning policies have statistically significant negative effects on the impact of the family background effect, independent of country-level policies.     

The career development of black and white South African university students

This study investigates the possible influence of gender and culture on the career maturity and study and work role salience of South African students. Responses to the Life Role Inventory and Career Development Questionnaire of 260 first-year university students (137 white, 123 black) were analyzed. Culture was found to have a significant effect on both career maturity and study and work role salience while gender had no significant effect. Results are related to previous findings from international and South African literature. Implications for counselling are discussed.Paper presented at the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling Conference, held at the University of Oporto, Oporto, Portugal, 2–5 April 1991.     

Global channels of evidence for learning and assessment in complex game environments

In this paper, we take a designer's look at how the activities and data of learning and assessment can be structured in immersive virtual game environments called Massively Multi‐Player Online Games (MMOG). In doing so, we examine the channels of evidence through which learning and assessment activities are derived in MMOGs, offering examples of how multiple evidence channels in operation through game‐based activities can be utilised to construct rich data trails for assessment.     

Transnational fan reactions to transnational trends: Norwegian Liverpool supporters, ‘authenticity’ and ‘filthy-rich’ club owners

Despite claims that local and transnational supporters in the English Premier League (EPL) may be closer to each other in terms of commitment and ‘authenticity’, than often imagined, our knowledge about how transnational fans, as one of EPL’s global components, responds to other global developments in the league is limited, given what is known about traditional fans’ meeting with EPL’s ‘global powers’. This research investigates perspectives and attitudes of transnational fans; a set of Norwegian Liverpool supporters, and their experiences of the club’s ‘foreign’ ownership, as articulated on an interactive message board. Crucially, whereas the attitudes towards ownership are mixed, the findings suggest an adoption of ‘traditional’ fan cultures, and reinforce claims that local and transnational fan cultures perhaps are closer, and display more similarities, than imagined. Certain findings also strengthen the argument sustaining that ‘authentic’ fandom should not solely be seen in terms of geographical origins or presence inside stadiums.     

Communication History

NEW AND IMPROVED: THE STORY OF MASS MARKETING IN AMERICA by Richard S. Tedlow (New York: Basic Books, 1990—$24.95, ISBN 0-465-05023-9,481 pp.)

EDISON AND THE BUSINESS OF INNOVATION by Andre Millard (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990—$38.50, ISBN 0-8018-3306-X, 387 pp.)

COMPUTING BEFORE COMPUTERS edited by William Aspray (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1990—$27.95, ISBN 0-8138-0047-1, 276 pp.)

AMERICAN MASS-MARKET MAGAZINES edited by Alan Nourie and Barbara Nourie (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1990—$79.95, ISBN 0-313-25254-8, 624 pp.)

JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA by Hazel Dicken-Garcia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989—$42.50/14.50, ISBN 0-299-12170-4 hard, 0-299-12174-7 soft, 342 pp.)

THE WATCHDOG CONCEPT: THE PRESS AND THE COURTS IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA by Timothy W. Gleason (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1990—$21.95, ISBN 0-8138-0152-4, 160 pp.)

MUCKRAKING AND OBJECTIVITY: JOURNALISM'S COLLIDING TRADITIONS by Robert Miraldi (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1990—$39.95, ISBN 0-313-27298-0, 184 pp.)     

Course of depression and anxiety symptoms during the transition to parenthood for female adolescents with histories of victimization

The aim of the current study was to increase understanding of how victimization history impacts the longitudinal course of depression and anxiety in a sample of 55 adolescents emerging into parenthood. Adolescents were interviewed about their victimization experiences during their second trimester of pregnancy, and interviews were subsequently classified according the Maltreatment Classification Scale (Barnett, Manly, & Cicchetti, 1993). Adolescents reported on their symptoms of depression and anxiety prenatally and 6 and 12 months postpartum. Growth curve modeling revealed that, on average, there was a steady linear decline in depression and anxiety symptoms across the transition to parenthood, with a rate of change of 25% and 20%, respectively, from the prenatal assessment to 12 months postpartum. Sexual abuse history attenuated the likelihood of a decrease in depressive symptoms over time. Neglect history was associated with higher prenatal levels of anxiety, as well as a steeper decline in anxiety symptoms over time. Future research is needed to determine the role of poly-victimization in predicting the onset and change of depression and anxiety symptoms. Findings from the current study have the potential to aid in the design of preventative and intervention efforts to reduce risks of mental health difficulties in adolescent parents.     

To enter the castle of fear: engendering children's story writing from home to school at KS2

This paper describes a small‐scale writing project in which a class of KS 2 primary pupils were invited to import their own narrative interests into a task designed by their teacher and the researcher within the constraints of the National Literacy Strategy. By employing an adventure genre, based on problem and puzzle solving, pupils were encouraged to introduce familiar scenarios and characters from their favourite stories in books, comics, videos or computer games. The work produced has been analyzed to highlight the different ways in which boys and girls engaged with key aspects of narrative and how this enabled discussion of gendered literacy practices in which boys and girls held an equal stake. The author discusses the importance of developing strategies by means of which children's understanding and transformations of their preferred modes of narrative pleasures can be housed within the current literacy framework.