Three Walks Through Fictional Fens: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on <Emphasis Type="Italic">Gaffer Samson’s Luck</Emphasis>

The paper discusses the children’s novel Gaffer Samson’s Luck (1984), by Jill Paton Walsh, from three different perspectives; those of a cultural geographer, a literary scholar and an English teacher. It is part of a larger research project on children’s perception of their place-related identities through reading and writing. The novel is used as a case study to develop a multidisciplinary approach, drawing upon theories of literature and reading, and a conceptualisation of space in cultural geography. Employing ideas from different disciplines, the paper offers an original interpretation of the text as well as innovative analytical tools for future research and for classroom application.     

Writing like writers in the classroom: free writing and formal constraint

This paper considers how ‘free writing’, derived from the automatic writing of the surrealists, can be used with students in writing poetry in order to emulate the successful practice of established writers. The paper considers how form can be taught, specifically line breaks and stanza breaks, both in relation to free writing and in relation to drafting, and argues that drafting should be considered an extension of the creative act of writing rather than as something which is done afterwards ‘to’ preexisting work.     

Discourse communities: A framework from which to consider professional development for rural teachers of science and mathematics

This paper explores aspects of professional development for teachers of science and mathematics in schools in rural Australia. The study identified a range of issues including tensions between government, school and individual professional learning priorities and their respective responsibilities; the shaping of professional development by rurality; and issues of generic versus subject-specific professional learning. The paper will focus on the needs of teachers, particularly secondary teachers, for subject-specific professional development and the capacity of different professional development approaches for satisfying these needs. The notion of discourse communities is proposed as a framework for considering this issue.     

Book Reviews

Towards Electronic Journals: Realities for Scientists, Librarians and Publishers by Carol Tenopir and Donald W. King. Washington, DC: SLA Publishing, 2000 Science Editing and Information Management edited by Connie J. Manson. USA: Geoscience Information Society, 1999. Pp. 118. Paperback, $25.00. ISBN 0‐934485‐30‐5 Futurize Your Enterprise: Business Strategy in the Age of the E‐Customer by David Siegel. Chichester: Wiley, 1999. Hardback, £19.50, ISBN 0‐471‐357634 The Impact of Electronic Publishing on the Academic Community (the Wenner–Gren International Series, Volume 73) edited by I. Butterworth. London: Portland Press 1998, Pp. 191. Price £75. ISBN 1‐85578‐122‐0 University Library Spending on Books and Journals: A Major Concern by Peter Sowden. Available from CAPP at the Publishers Association (1 Kingsway, London WC2B 6XF)