Challenges Facing Immigrant Students Beyond the Linguistic Domain in a New Gateway State

Although there is a great deal of theoretical and practical scholarship related to immigrant students, the extant literature most often conflates the needs of English language learners with the needs of immigrant students (Goodwin in Educ Urb Soc 34(2):156–172, 2002; Sox in Theory Pract 48:312–318, 2009; Yoon in Am Educ Res J 49(5):971–1002, 2012). Findings from this study indicate that teachers in an area with a rapidly rising immigrant population perceived immigrant students to face four significant challenges beyond linguistic considerations. By analyzing interview and focus group data from six high school Civics teachers, this qualitative collective case study is positioned to make recommendations for teachers and teacher educators by bringing attention to the challenges facing immigrant students beyond the linguistic domain in a new gateway state.     

Digital culture clash: “massive” education in the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC

While education has been both open and online, the sizeable enrolment numbers associated with massive open online courses (MOOCs) are somewhat unprecedented. In order to gauge the significance of education at scale, this article analyses specific examples of massive participation derived from E-learning and Digital Cultures, a MOOC from the University of Edinburgh in partnership with Coursera. Student-created content, user statistics, and survey data are illustrated to examine the experiences and repercussions of engaging with educational activity where participants number in the tens of thousands. This activity is shown to mirror established instructionist or constructivist approaches to pedagogy. However, rather than working with “massiveness,” these positions are suggested to oppose large participant numbers. Concluding remarks propose an irreducible diversity of participation, rather than a generalised categorisation of “student,” and call for future considerations of the MOOC to move beyond individualism and self-interest.     

Managing change and embedding innovation in academic libraries and information services

The paper examines the management of change and the embedding of innovation in academic libraries and information services during a period of considerable and continuous change. Detailed examples are given from the author's own institution that adopts a very structured and corporate approach to strategic planning. The internal and external factors driving organisational change in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector are identified using a PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis, and a detailed SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is presented which will enable institutions to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of their services being able to deliver the changes required. Examples are given of the kinds of changes library and information services will need to implement in order to respond effectively to the changing external environment. Some of the barriers to the successful implementation of change are identified, with some practical measures to bear in mind to help ensure successful outcomes.     

Police Media: The Governance of Territory,Speed, and Communication

The work of the modern police apparatus is highly dependent upon media technologies. This article traces crucial developments in this history, analyzing the central role that media have played in policing practices since the advent of the modern patrol in the late eighteenth century. We trace how the governmentalized police force has used media to govern efficiently what Foucault calls the three great variables: territory, speed, and communication. In conclusion, we consider the possibilities for resistance in a time when digital police media have given rise to alarming strategies for surveilling populations, stifling dissent, and exerting control over public and private space.     

Overcoming low self-efficacy beliefs in teaching English to young learners

Drawing on data from observations and interviews, this article presents a case study of one teacher’s efforts to overcome low self-efficacy beliefs in teaching English to young learners in a Middle Eastern context. It provides insights into the growth processes involved, highlighting how the teacher drew reflectively upon her experiences to develop deeper practical knowledge and stronger self-efficacy beliefs with regard to the particular task, while supported by a constructivist teacher education programme.     

Atuarfitsialak: Greenland’s cultural compatible reform

In 2002, Greenlandic reform leaders launched a comprehensive, nation‐wide reform to create culturally compatible education. Greenland’s reform work spans the entire educational system and includes preschool through higher education. To assist their efforts, reform leaders adopted the Standards for Effective Pedagogy developed at the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE). The standards are principles of effective teaching and learning that have been researched in many other indigenous communities. This study investigated the early stages of Greenland’s reform work of the public school to understand why reform leaders adopted the CREDE standards, and what constraints, if any, the standards posed in the Greenlandic context. The findings suggest the reform was initiated to further decolonize Greenland as a former colony of Denmark. The standards were adopted to assist in this process by increasing Greenlandic students’ linguistic abilities, strengthening native culture and identity, and improving Greenland’s labor market.     

Curriculum change: a study of the implementation of General National Vocational Qualifications

This article focuses on curriculum change, in particular on course team responses to the introduction of a new curriculum and on the implications of empirical findings for our understanding of curriculum implementation and change. The case discussed is that of the second version of GNVQ. The discussion is based on an analysis of data collected across twenty-two course teams in ten schools and colleges over a two-year period as part of an ESRC-funded project. The model of comprehensive assessment of the second version of the GNVQ is one in which the curriculum reinforcement role of assessment related to the coverage and standards of the qualification but not to the design of courses. Theoretically, significant scope was accorded to course teams to develop and provide courses that responded to local contexts. The article explores how patterns of difference and similarity in course team responses to the introduction of this curriculum might be explained and indicates three broad approaches: implementation, adaptation and assimilation, relating these responses to the existing experience and expertise of members of the various course teams. The article draws on concepts from the field of linguistics to put forward the notions of ‘curricular fields’ and ‘sub-curricular fields’ and suggests that curriculum implementation needs to take greater account of the sub-curricular fields of course teams.     

Uncivil Speech: Invective and the Rhetorics of Democracy in the Early Republic

Robert Owen's “Declaration of Mental Independence,” declaimed on the Fourth of July, 1826, was one of the most ill-received speeches in the early Republic. The attendant controversy provides an opportunity to theorize invective's role in democratic culture. Invective was useful in the early Republic, and continues to be useful today, because it is both constitutive of national identity and a curative rhetoric for managing cultural anxiety. However, there are limits to what invective can achieve, and invective's place in democracy is consequently ambivalent. Rather than curing democratic anxiety, invective tends to perpetuate it, disrupting democracy's emphasis on controlled conflict and pushing it ever closer to violence.