101 Things to Know or Do as a Wyoming County Library Board Member

Created by the staff of the Wyoming State Library, this online “flip list” of 101 items is an introductory checklist of fiscal and policy oversight responsibilities and communication efforts that all trustees of libraries ought to know and carry around in their heads as they function as governance spokespersons for their various systems.     

BOOK REVIEW

No abstract available for this article.     

A Process for Developing Regional Business School—Business Community Relationships

ABSTRACT

The relationship between a business school and the local business community can be a mutually beneficial relationship. For the regional business school, building relationships with business executives can be a timely and difficult challenge, which can be compounded by the presence and influence of larger private and state schools. The School of Business Administration at Oakland University (Rochester, MI), faced with these challenges, devised a simple straight-forward process that overcame these challenges and successfully involved 35 local business executives in a mutually beneficial relationship with the School in a very short time. This article describes the process, which can be used by any school or college.     

Inclusion and mainstream education: an equal cooperation system

By being holistic, inclusion implies the involvement of a wide variety of professionals coming from very diverse professional and institutional backgrounds. It will only find its unity in a common focus on the individual project and in the coherence of all participants' contributions, interactions and interrelationships. Because such coherent functioning is far from being spontaneous, the proposed analysis aims to identify some features contributing to the coherence of mainstream schooling situations and to the quality of the guidance of the assistant. It reveals that this coherence lies in the ability to define clearly what is expected by a mainstream education process, so that the different actors can combine an integrative perspective based on schools' needs and a participative approach based on children's needs. Secondly, it appears that guidance is likely to be appropriate to the child's needs if it is based in the coinvolvement of interindividual and organizational contractual relationships. Finally, the analysis reveals that the coherence of a mainstream education process presupposes strategies through which equal cooperation systems, taking into account inter-individual dynamics as well as organisational logics, can be created.     

Dyslexia‐friendly schools and parent partnership: inclusion and home–school relationships

This paper summarizes an action research project in five local areas in the south‐west of England which aimed to support parents of children with dyslexic difficulties who were experiencing problems in obtaining appropriate provision in mainstream schools. It was based on the importance of effective parental partnership and quality inclusive practice for children having dyslexic difficulties. A development officer worked over two years in the five participating LEAs that were selected to represent a range of professional practice with a mix of urban and rural populations. As part of the evaluation, the authors also examined longitudinally the educational experiences of a sample of parents. The paper includes a conceptual framework of parental agency in this field in terms of knowledge, identity and parental strategies, and the conditions under which parents escalate their strategies to secure appropriate provision for their children. The support provided by the development officer is analysed in terms of the kinds of support requests received, the kinds of support offered and qualitative evidence of the impact of this support. This research is theorized in terms of current ideas about parent‐partnership and theories about parent–teacher relations in terms of the diversity of parents. It highlights the significance of thinking about inclusive schooling and parent–school relations in terms of the interconnections between general systems for all, for those with special educational needs and those with specific difficulties. The policy and practice implications are interpreted in terms of the importance of a system of extended professionalism, which is inclusive of parents with learning difficulties and disabilities.     

Response to Reidun Tangen: insiders and relational problems

This paper reports the experiences of special education needs co‐ordinators (SENCOs) on the inclusion of pupils with a visual impairment (VI) in mainstream schools in Northern Ireland. A mixed method approach (postal questionnaire survey (n=113) and interviews (n=6)) was utilised to triangulate the findings. The results indicate an inverse relationship between school years and pupil numbers, with negligible numbers of pupils with a VI reported in higher level examination classes. They also reveal that, for health and safety reasons and due to problems in accessing text books, some schools discourage pupils with a VI from studying subjects such as technology and design, physical education and mathematics. While pupils with a VI are thought to enjoy the social aspects of school life (e.g., peer friendships), less is known about their ability to access a number of areas within the school, including lunchtime clubs and the dinner hall. These findings raise questions about the qualitative nature of the educational experience afforded pupils with a VI.     

Why relationships matter: parent and early childhood teacher perspectives about the provisions afforded by young children's relationships

This study investigated the perspectives of early childhood teachers and parents regarding the importance of provisions afforded by child–teacher and peer relationships in early childhood centres. Participants were 200 parents and 71 teachers of children aged 0–5 years who responded to an online survey containing a series of relationship function statements that were rated according to their perceived importance. Results demonstrate that most functions were rated as more important in the context of child–teacher relationships than peer relationships, although statements reflecting the provision of friendship were regarded as more important in the domain of peer relationships. Ratings for particular provisions of infant relationships were significantly lower than those for older children; a result generated largely by variation in the ratings of teachers in comparison to those of parents. Findings are discussed in relation to differences between parent and teacher perspectives and implications for the development of inclusive, relationship-based pedagogies.     

连动句中连动项之间存在多种语义关系的分析

连动句中连动项的语义关系不局限于单纯的先后、方式、目的、因果、补充说明和条件等关系。还有一部分连动句中多种语义关系并存。对这种语言现象的考察分析可以深化对现代汉语连动句的认识。     

Silenced Truths: Relational and Emotional Dimensions of a Beginning Teacher's Identity as Part of the Micropolitical Context of School

This article focuses on teacher identity. Based on two small stories told in a peer group by a beginning teacher, we ask: How does a beginning teacher tell about her identity as part of the micropolitical context of school? Theoretically and methodologically, the research is committed to a narrative approach in understanding teacher identity. The material consists of small stories based on videotaped peer group discussions of 11 Finnish teachers. The results of the research illustrate the micropolitical context at the heart of how a beginning teacher's identity is constructed through diverse emotionally significant relationships. Narrative ways of working, such as group discussions, can offer teachers an opportunity to recognize different dimensions of their identity.