Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Communication

This article presents an antenarrative of the field of technical and professional communication. Part methodology and part practice, an antenarrative allows the work of the field to be reseen, forges new paths forward, and emboldens the field’s objectives to unabashedly embrace social justice and inclusivity as part of its core narrative. The authors present a heuristic that can usefully extend the pursuit of inclusivity in technical and professional communication.     

Effective e-learning for health professionals and students--barriers and their solutions. A systematic review of the literature--findings from the HeXL project

Introduction: In 2003/4 the Information Management Research Institute, Northumbria University, conducted a research project to identify the barriers to e‐learning for health professionals and students. The project also established possible ways to overcome these barriers. The North of England Workforce Development Confederation funded the project. Methodology: The project comprised a systematic review of the literature on barriers to and solutions/critical success factors for e‐learning in the health field. Fifty‐seven references were suitable for analysis. This review was supplemented by a questionnaire survey of learners and an interview study of learning providers to ensure that data identified from the literature were grounded in reality. Results: The main barriers are: requirement for change; costs; poorly designed packages; inadequate technology; lack of skills; need for a component of face‐to‐face teaching; time intensive nature of e‐learning; computer anxiety. A range of solutions can solve these barriers. The main solutions are: standardization; strategies; funding; integration of e‐learning into the curriculum; blended teaching; user friendly packages; access to technology; skills training; support; employers paying e‐learning costs; dedicated work time for e‐learning. Conclusions: The authors argue that librarians can play an important role in e‐learning: providing support and support materials; teaching information skills; managing and providing access to online information resources; producing their own e‐learning packages; assisting in the development of other packages.     

Encouraging Engagement with Students and Integrating Librarians into the Curriculum through a Personal Librarian Program

Five years ago, the Harriet F. Ginsburg Health Sciences Library created a Personal Librarian Program (PLP) to encourage librarian engagement with first- and second-year medical students and to promote awareness of library resources and services. Prior to the creation of the PLP, the library struggled with finding ways to connect with its medical students, especially because the library is 98% digital. The PLP was created to give students an individualized library experience and an easier way to interact with librarians. As a result, opportunities for librarian-student engagement increased, and Personal Librarian groups facilitated the integration of librarians into two first- and second-year medical school courses.     

Just men? Towards the education of men for gender justice in a context of religiously legitimised patriarchy: A South African case study

This paper explores the education of men for gender justice in a context of religiously legitimised patriarchy, through a case study of a Catholic theological institute in South Africa. It draws on interviews with students and staff and participant observation conducted during a pilot study in 2011. The data highlight ideological justifications and internal norms which both support and oppose women's subjugation. The contestation of gender justice is seen in practice in both resistance and an emergent insider advocacy. Finally transformative examples of education for gender justice are described. The potential for such education is thus underlined.     

The price of admission: Who gets into private school,and how much do they pay?

I analyze how elementary and secondary private schools decide which students to admit from their applicant pool using mechanism design theory. The problem for an individual private school of who to admit and how much to charge in tuition, is complicated by the existence of peer-effects: the value students place on attending school is increasing with the average ability of the entire class at that school. This feature, coupled with the fact that students can always attend public school for free, places constraints on the types of classes the private school can admit. In my model, students have an ability type that is known to the school through testing, as well as a wealth type that is private information. Students report their wealth to the school and on the basis of the results from the ability test and wealth reports, the school institutes an allocation rule and a payment rule. Allocation rules which only admit all high ability students and no others, or all high wealth students and no others are not feasible. I utilize a simple example to show how in a revenue-maximizing allocation, the private school always under-admits the highest ability students relative to the allocation rule that maximizes social welfare.