'The Kids are Doing All Right': Differences in parental satisfaction,expectation and attribution in St Petersburg,Sunderland and

Comparative studies of attitudes in different countries have resulted in the claim that parents in the USA and England tend to have unrealistically positive views of their children's schools and academic performance. Low expectations, together with a belief in the importance of natural ability, it has been argued, lead to low standards and reduce striving to succeed. The present study builds upon earlier investigations of children's attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in Sunderland, Eastern Kentucky and St Petersburg by surveying parental perspectives. Findings from these three regions reinforce earlier findings about English and American complacency and the more demanding nature of the Russian context. In line with our earlier studies, and contrary to the suggestion of a number of writers, an emphasis upon effort, rather than ability, was a strong feature of the English and American responses, although it is pointed out that such beliefs may not actually result in high work rates. The paper concludes by suggesting that the important role of parents in instilling important attitudes and behaviours in their children is undermined by the current emphasis upon schools as fundamentally responsible for ensuring high levels of achievement.     

Creating Knowledge for Advocacy: The Discourse of Research at a Conservation Organization

In the field of conservation, the distinction between academic research and advocacy appears to be undergoing a shift as the number of PhD-level researchers at conservation advocacy organizations grows. Drawing on my case study of one researcher at a prominent conservation nongovernmental organization (NGO), I have shown how this shift is manifested in the communication of NGO research. My study includes a discourse analysis of this researcher's publications from the forums of both scholarship and advocacy including, as a representation of discourse in the latter forum, gray literature (reports, books, and other texts produced and distributed outside the channels of the academic and publishing industry). I have also drawn on my interviews with this researcher about her publications. My study highlights specific features typical of her rhetoric that result from her occupying a hybridized cultural and professional space where research and advocacy overlap.     

A simple microscopy assay to teach the processes of phagocytosis and exocytosis

Phagocytosis and exocytosis are two cellular processes involving membrane dynamics. While it is easy to understand the purpose of these processes, it can be extremely difficult for students to comprehend the actual mechanisms. As membrane dynamics play a significant role in many cellular processes ranging from cell signaling to cell division to organelle renewal and maintenance, we felt that we needed to do a better job of teaching these types of processes. Thus, we developed a classroom-based protocol to simultaneously study phagocytosis and exocytosis in Tetrahymena pyriformis. In this paper, we present our results demonstrating that our undergraduate classroom experiment delivers results comparable with those acquired in a professional research laboratory. In addition, students performing the experiment do learn the mechanisms of phagocytosis and exocytosis. Finally, we demonstrate a mathematical exercise to help the students apply their data to the cell. Ultimately, this assay sets the stage for future inquiry-based experiments, in which the students develop their own experimental questions and delve deeper into the mechanisms of phagocytosis and exocytosis.     

NEW MEDIA

In 1845 John Lewis Ricardo was among a group who bought the Cooke and Wheatstone British patents for the electric telegraph at a current cost of £10 million. Although many people have examined the history of the telegraph no one seems to have asked the question ‘Why?’ Ricardo was a Member of the Stock Exchange, financier and a leading politician campaigning against monopolies. This paper postulates that his prime objective, while the largest shareholder for the first three and executive Chairman of the Electric Telegraph Company for its first 12 years, was to build a network, obtain and then distribute financial intelligence to its own newsrooms, adjacent to all the Stock Exchanges in Britain. It was not an afterthought as has been widely assumed. Newspapers in the regions took advantage of this new media. When the telegraph companies later formed their own cartel/monopoly, and substantially boosted prices charged to newspapers, Ricardo changed sides and secretly campaigned for their nationalization.     

‘We're Going to Make You Popular': Popular Collections in the Modern Academic Law Library

One way to promote the relevancy of an academic law library is to create a special collection that generates interest in the patron base; a popular collection is a viable way of reinventing a law library's image in the hearts and minds of the law school community. Popular collections have been championed by general academic librarians because they promote reading and literacy, the use of the library as a place, and such collections represent the shift toward a user focused library model. Using data collected from interviews and analysis of collection development policies this article presents models of popular collections currently in use at academic law libraries, as well as considerations for the creation of such collections.     

Early years curriculum: funds of knowledge as a conceptual framework for children’s interests

Children’s interests are frequently cited as a source of early‐years curricula. Yet, research has rarely considered the nature of these interests beyond the play‐based environment of early‐childhood education. This paper reports findings from a qualitative, interpretivist study in two early childhood settings in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Using participant observation, interviews, and documentation, the study examined children’s interests and teachers’ engagement with these in curriculum interactions. Evidence suggested children’s interests were stimulated by their ‘intent participation’ in family and community experiences and encapsulated in the notion of ‘funds of knowledge’. The concept of funds of knowledge provides a coherent analytic framework for teachers to recognize children’s interests and extend teachers’ curriculum planning focus beyond that of a child‐centred play‐based learning environment.     

Education policy and the question of child labour: the Lancashire cotton industry and R. D. Denman's Bill of 1914

Those of our people who avail themselves of the advantages of education, are generally distinguished for their good conduct, steadiness, neatness and self respect; and I perceive them afterwards becoming attendants in our reading room for their recreation and improvement instead of frequenting the ale‐houses

(John Walsh MacMaster, 12 January 1851).     

Dimensions of conflict: reflections on the higher education experience from an access education perspective

Given the widening participation agenda and associated enrolment targets, mature students who enter higher education by non-traditional pathways look set to become an increasingly prominent cohort who bring with them valuable skills, experiences and personal attributes that can and do enrich the learning environment. However, the Australian case study reported here indicates that those same attributes can present particular challenges for educators and for the students themselves, not least of which is the challenge inherent in the need for students to transform the procedural knowledge of their prior experience into the corresponding propositional form required by academic contexts. In relating the experiences of ‘Judy’, who had both successfully completed a comprehensive access programme and who began her undergraduate studies equipped with richly relevant life experience, this account provides evidence of some of these challenges, the potential for tension and conflict that they present, and the negative impact they can have on the first year higher education experience. Their effects can however be mitigated, we suggest, by: closer collaboration between support services and academic faculty; raising awareness in prospective lecturers and tutors; and ensuring, through training and professional development initiatives, that staff are adequately equipped to respond effectively and appropriately.