Czech Open Access for the Humanities and Social Sciences

ABSTRACT

This article examines the current state of Open Access for the humanities and social sciences in the Czech Republic. Since the Velvet Revolution in 1989, and following the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia in January of 1993, the Open Access movement in the Czech context remains understudied. This article focuses on the current state of affairs of Open Access in the Czech Republic within the European Union framework for Open Access.     

The educational performance of immigrant children at Czech schools

The integration of immigrant children into the education system is a process that is accompanied by serious debate, especially in advanced countries, which have large shares of immigrants and a long history of immigration. The poorer educational outcomes of foreign-born children are largely explained there through their socio-economically disadvantaged background compared to the native-born population. This article examines whether the observations for those countries also apply to the Czech Republic—a country with a relatively short immigration history and immigration flows from different source countries than those in Western Europe. Regression analyses conducted on PISA 2012 data focusing largely on the maths skills of 15-year-olds reveal that the performance of immigrant children in Czech schools roughly compares to that of their counterparts in Western Europe. While their PISA outcomes were lower than those of Czechs, this was because immigrant children have poorer conditions at home or in the classroom.     

The Power of Language,Learning and Socialization: Romani and Ebonics

This article draws attention to the role one’s language plays in socialization and explains the misunderstandings and conflicts over integration of the Roma in the Czech Republic. Recognizing the role of home language leads to successful socialization. By not demanding that schools account for home language in the process of teaching, the Roma have implicitly agreed that Czech is the natural way through which children of diverse cultural backgrounds access education and adapt. Children of minorities and namely, the Roma, have been disadvantaged by cultural assumptions enabling teachers, curricula, and textbooks to construct the profile of a Czech student in a way that precludes his or her multicultural origin. To compare, the study provides insight into the conflict between Standard American English and Afro-American English and highlights its factors, legal resolutions, and contemporary situation. The article also reviews research on bilingual classrooms and learning in the United States and suggests that it is relevant to the contentious interrelationship of standard Czech and Romani at schools.     

Thank You to Reviewers

Abstract

Cooperation between higher education institutions and external entities is a prerequisite for the success of all economic entities and society as a whole in any knowledge-based economy. The aim of the study was to identify, analyze and evaluate the benefits of, and factors limiting, cooperation between higher education institutions and external entities, and identify measures that would contribute to the development of this cooperation from the perspective of managers of public, state and private higher education institutions carrying out activities in the Czech Republic. The study shows that higher education managers consider the contribution to the development of knowledge and experience of students, academics and researchers to be the most important benefit of cooperation. From their point of view, the most significant limiting factors are the limited time availability of faculty/staff, insufficient financial resources and the administrative demands of cooperation. The development of cooperation would be most enhanced by financial support from national public sources or the EU, or through the use of contacts with graduates working for external entities.     

Digital Access to Cultural Heritage and Scholarship in the Czech Republic

ABSTRACT. This article looks at selected digital library projects in the Czech Republic, with a focus on two main domains of activity: digital preservation of cultural heritage, and providing digital access to scholarship through institutional repositories. With regard to digitization of national cultural heritage, the Czech Republic, largely through the leadership of the National Library, has established itself as one of the most active countries in the region. With regard to providing access to Czech research and scholarship, although there is quite a bit of interest among research institutions and universities, institutional repositories are currently in the exploratory stage and have not yet been widely implemented. Copyright laws are repeatedly cited by Czech librarians as one obstacle to improving access to digital resources in both spheres of activity.     

Epitaph for Szwede Slavic Books

Szwede Slavic Books, the largest Slavic bookstore in the United States, ceased operations in May 2010. However, throughout its operation, the bookstore made an enormous contribution to Slavic culture and Slavic library collections in the United States. In this article, the author introduces the owners, Irena and Jerzy Szwede, and longtime employee Vera Shemelis. Additionally, he discusses the firm, its books, and the special atmosphere of the store.     

The Slavic Humanities Index: Current Developments and Future Plans

The author describes the Slavic Humanities Index, a bibliographic database of scholarly and cultural articles on subjects including history; literature; language teaching; linguistics; philosophy; ethnology; performing arts; and cultural, borderland, and regional studies. She discusses its development, its current form and functionality, and plans for the future.     

Holdings of Books Related to Russia and Eastern Europe Among Japanese Academic Libraries: An Analysis Based on the NII Union Catalog

ABSTRACT

Using numerical methods and list-checking on the national electronic union catalog, the author surveys the Russian, Czech, Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Hungarian book collections in Japanese academic libraries.     

The seeing and the seen: contrasting perspectives of post‐communist Czech schooling

This study analyses both foreign (primarily western European and North American) and Czech perspectives of Czech schooling in the post‐communist era. Qualitative content analysis is performed on documentary sources written by scholars about Czech schooling. The analysis examines which topics are highlighted, what are the main patterns and what is the overall perspective of the document. The analysis is guided by theory from intellectual history about the social construction of ‘Eastern Europe’. The study finds that Western perspectives of post‐communist Czech schooling are mostly negative and are typically based on common sense notions and casual observation rather than comprehensive knowledge and thorough research. It therefore concludes that Western perspectives of Czech schooling are influenced by the social construction of Eastern Europe. Ironically, many of the Western scholars use the concept of democracy to justify this distorted viewing of Czech schooling as an ‘Other’ to that in the West.