Improving Communication Between Postgraduate Researchers and the University Library: A Case Study at De Montfort University Library and Learning Services

ABSTRACT

A well-established postgraduate researcher development program has existed at De Montfort University for many years. Library and Learning Services include modules on literature searching skills and critical appraisal. However, we recognized that researchers seemed to be disengaged with the services on offer. This concern informed a research project that considered the ways we could communicate better with researchers based on their needs. This paper explores the essential components of successful communication, such as context, timeliness and communication channels. An action-research approach was taken including focus groups and online surveys. The outcomes highlighted three significant crisis points, emphasizing the key times when researchers might need some intervention. The findings of this research identified the distinct needs of Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and how relevant and timely communication from the library can meet these needs. It also considers the impact of how communication has improved with researchers as a result of some of our interventions.     

The impact of parental young onset dementia on children and young people's educational careers

It is well established that having a parent with any illness or disability can have an adverse effect on individuals’ experiences of education and on their educational progress. Advances in medical knowledge are leading to more people under 65 being diagnosed with young onset dementias and, concomitantly, to more children and young people who are in education having a parent with this diagnosis. Hardly any research has asked these young people directly about their experiences, but the limited evidence suggests that there will likely be significant emotional, mental and psychological damage with enduring impact on their lives. This article, drawing on findings from a unique narrative, auto/biographical study involving 24 British 6 to 31‐year‐olds, focuses on the consequences of parental young onset dementia for educational careers. These dementias are untimely progressive terminal illnesses with unpredictable trajectories and timelines, throughout the course of which physical, cognitive and emotional functions and abilities are inexorably lost. Participants’ experiences show that living with a parent with young onset dementia, whilst negotiating the education system, can be extremely hard. Difficulties are exacerbated by the condition's distinctive characteristics, the current lack of any cure and anticipatory, pre‐death grief. Lack of public awareness and understanding, both of young onset dementias and of dedicated resources and support services, also result in many feeling isolated and ignored. We make suggestions for positive provision and actions that educational institutions can make to begin to meet the particular needs of these young people.     

Learning and identity in overlapping communities of practice: Surf club, school and sports clubs

Large numbers of children and young people spend their weekends and holidays engaged in the activities of over 300 surf clubs across Australia each summer. Long term membership in these clubs, beginning from as young as five years of age, forms a significant part of children's and young people's development yet surf clubs have yet to receive recognition from researchers in either the education or physical education fields as significant learning sites. Within the context of growing recognition of learning as an ongoing, multidimensional and life-long process this represents an oversight in the literature that this paper sets out to redress. Employing the concepts of communities of practice and situated learning (Lave & Wenger 1991, Wenger 1998) it examines four young people's experiences as members of a Victorian surf club as a community of practice. It also compares the experiences of these young people in the surf club with those arising from membership in their schools and sports clubs.     

Beyond Awareness: Black Studies for Consciousness and Praxis in Teacher Education

Critical Studyin' is a Black Studies-inspired, morally engaged pedagogy. With roots in anti-racist teaching, it is focused on race, ideology, and education. This study explores the learning experiences and outcomes of seven, preservice educators after taking a course that was based on Critical Studyin' and offered in a College of Education at one university in the Southeastern region of the United States. Researchers employed constructivist grounded theory techniques to the analysis of semi-structured interviews and course documents. Findings highlight the development of students' critical consciousness and agency as they engaged in critical interrogation of the complex relationships among race, culture, and classroom teaching. This study highlights the potential of Black Studies as a pedagogy teacher educators can enact to orchestrate disruptive learning experiences and environments necessary for anti-racist teaching. It adds further support for culture-centered approaches in educator preparation that scaffolds preservice educators in their development of justice-oriented perspectives and practices in education.     

Teaching Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Expert Perspectives on Pedagogy and Practice

Capacity building in social science research methods is positioned by research councils as crucial to global competitiveness. The pedagogies involved, however, remain under-researched and the pedagogical culture under-developed. This paper builds upon recent thematic reviews of the literature to report new research that shifts the focus from individual experiences of research methods teaching to empirical evidence from a study crossing research methods, disciplines and nations. A dialogic, expert panel method was used, engaging international experts to examine teaching and learning practices in advanced social research methods. Experts, perspectives demonstrated strong thematic commonalities across quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods domains in terms of pedagogy, by connecting learners to research, giving direct and immersive experiences of research practice and promoting reflexivity. This paper argues that through analysis of expert responses to the distinct pedagogic challenges of the methods classroom, the principles and illustrative examples generated can form the knowledge and understanding required to enhance pedagogic culture and practice.     

Japanese and American children's evaluations of peer exclusion,tolerance of differences,and prescriptions for conformity

Children and adolescents (N = 1,057), divided by gender, at fourth, seventh, and tenth grades, from two mid-sized cities in the United States and in Japan, were surveyed regarding their evaluations of peer group exclusion of atypical peers. Six reasons for atypicality were being aggressive, having an unconventional appearance, acting like a clown, demonstrating cross-gender behavior, being a slow runner, and having a sad personality. Analyses revealed significant effects for age, gender, country membership, and the context of exclusion. With age, children demonstrated context sensitivity, and believed that the excluded child should not change him- or herself to be accepted by the group. Across contexts, girls were less willing to exclude than were boys, and were more tolerant of differences. The context of exclusion had an effect on all forms of judgments about exclusion, and there were very few overall effects for culture. Most children disagreed with the decision to exclude, believed that they were different from the atypical child, and believed that the excluded child should change him- or herself to be accepted by the group. The results support a theory of developmental social cognition in which multiple sources of influence have a significant effect on social decision making involving the exclusion of others.     

Aspirations and equality in higher education: gender in a South African university

This paper considers ways to theorise aspirations in terms of capabilities and agency to function as human beings, as well as our resources to act and participate in this world using a South African case of women students’ aspirations. In this analysis higher education should foster women’s freedom as critical agents to make genuine choices about their lives and futures, including being able to engage critically with gender norms. The paper thus explores critical agency, together with aspirations – the goals one wants to reach in the future – that indicate which capabilities are valued and which could unlock critical agency. However, the paper also considers the ambiguities generated by the persistence of gender norms and the way these may work in higher education cultures to constrain what women have reason to value and hence their capabilities and achievements.     

Knowledge,Narrative and National Reconciliation: Storied reflections on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission

This paper considers the educational work that narrative does. Against the context of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission that examined the crimes of apartheid, it discusses the narrative implications of South African poet Antjie Krog's multi-layered text of Truth Commission testimony, and autobiographical and philosophical musings. The paper argues that narrative points to education in four ways. The first involves research practices in which subjectivity and experience are acknowledged, celebrated and recognized to be powerful and compelling, allowing us to learn moral truths. Secondly, narrative can be utilised as part of a pedagogy of care, compassion and concern in which we ask questions regarding what it means to be taught by the lives of others, and how stories that are not our own speak to those we already have, enabling us to learn how to act morally through others' experiences. The third aspect of narrative is then the identity work it enables, offering the possibility for the reconstruction of the learning “I”, inflecting away from past perspectives to new ways of seeing. Through listening to others we might produce more accountable and more responsible knowledge. Fourthly, we explore how narratives might produce trustworthy accounts in which evidence is not endlessly plastic, but where the narrative form enlarges the scope for understanding. Throughout we show that individual and collective narratives are played out on a structural field, embedded in the political, social and historical conditions of a racial and gendered power, with real material effects.     

A comparison of performance and attitudes in mathematics amongst the ‘gifted’. Are boys better at mathematics or do they just think they are?

This paper explores gender differential performance in ‘gifted and talented’ 9‐ and 13‐year‐olds in a mathematics assessment in England. Boys’ and girls’ attitudes to mathematics and their views about which gender is better at mathematics are also considered. The study employs the use of a matched sample of boys and girls so that school, age and previous achievement in mathematics can be controlled whilst exploring performance on World Class Test items. The main result of this research was that there was no significant gender difference in performance for the 9‐ or the 13‐year‐olds. However, attitudinal differences were found, including a seemingly commonly held stereotypical view of mathematics as a boys’ subject. These results are important since the uptake of higher level mathematically‐based courses by girls is poor. Further findings reveal that where ‘gifted’ girls perform as well as ‘gifted’ boys, their confidence in the subject is lower than their performance might suggest. This work is also discussed in the light of related research findings and in relation to stereotype threat theory.     

Transition planning and the needs of young people and their carers: the alumni project

Melanie Smart is a research associate at Sunfield School, Worcestershire, and a trainee clinical psychologist. In this article, she reports the results of a small-scale survey which looked at the views of 17 parents whose children with severe and/or complex learning difficulties had made the transition from a residential special school to an adult placement. Pa rents were asked their retrospective views on the transition planning process; their own involvement; and how the adult placement met the needs of their children.
Melanie Smart's findings indicate that the majority of parents were very much involved in the planning process, although they reported struggling to get consistency of approach and basic information. The young people themselves were found to be marginalised in the planning process, with very few being involved in any decision making. Most parents were happy with the eventual placement, but those who had concerns were still pushing for basic services and care. Of those who had suffered placement breakdowns, the major factor was lack of consistency of approach and failure to use prior information about the child.
This survey shows that parents and their learning disabled children experience difficulties in the transition process. There seems to be a distinct lack of person-centred planning, particularly with this user group, by both child and adult services. Parents are vital to this type of planning approach, particularly when the young people themselves cannot voice their needs or advocate their own rights to quality service provision. Melanie Smart argues that parents need access to better quality information and reassurance that their children will receive the services they deserve as young adults. The various agencies, she asserts, need to work together to ensure that the transition process is effective.