How we done it good: Research through design as a legitimate methodology for librarianship

“How we done it good” publications—a genre concerning project-based approaches that describe how (and sometimes why) something was done—are often rebuked in the library research community for lacking traditional scientific validity, reliability, and generalizability. While scientific methodologies may be a common approach to research and inquiry, they are not the only methodological paradigms. This research posits that the how we done it good paradigm in librarianship reflects a valid and legitimate approach to research. By drawing on the concept of research through design, this study shows how these how we done it good projects reflect design methodologies which draw rigor from process, invention, relevance, and extensibility rather than replicability, generalizability, and predictability. Although these projects implicitly reflect research through design, the methodology is not yet explicitly harnessed in librarianship. More support for these types of projects can be achieved by making the legitimate design framework more explicit and increasing support from publication venues.     

Mapping the educational experiences of children with pathological demand avoidance

‘Pathological demand avoidance’ (PDA) describes a pattern of difficulties increasingly recognised as forming part of the autistic spectrum. Although clinical reports suggest that children with PDA are likely to experience considerable difficulties in education, their educational experiences have not yet been explored in any systematic way. In the current study, 42 parents of children with PDA completed a questionnaire about their child's educational experiences. Parents' responses indicated that this group of children displays high levels of problem behaviours in school, and receives corresponding high levels of special educational need support and professional involvement. Despite this support, the group had experienced high rates of exclusion and placement breakdown, with only 48% now in mainstream education. Parents reported relatively high satisfaction in their children's educational placements, with success defined by parents in terms of child outcomes, school characteristics and PDA‐specific factors. Findings are discussed with reference to what is known about the educational experiences of children with more typical autism spectrum conditions and in terms of the implications for the inclusion of this group of children with complex needs.     

Gender positioning in teacher education in England: New rhetoric,old realities

This article presents data from a series of life-history interviews with female student teachers of physical education. The intention is to forge links between the experiences of female student teachers, and their 'gender positioning' within the micro-politics of teacher education and the wider discourse that informs these interactions. On first entering teaching these women tended to adopt or enter 'survival mode', which endorsed particular professional identities that were consolidated by a form of instrumental rationality. These professional identities were closely tied to conventional conceptions of masculinity, and legitimated and contributed to, the reinforcement of particular gender inequalities in teacher education. The analysis suggests that a liberal discourse of equal opportunities masks the institutionalisation of social 'otherness' and inequality and supports the 'essentialisation' of male and female identities.     

Assessment in special schools: national early assessment procedures and pupils attending special schools in England

An implicit assumption that fostering inclusion means having shared systems encompassing the needs of all children is evident in many aspects of policy development over the past decade. Reflecting this, the implementation of ‘baseline assessment’ schemes (i.e. testing at around age 5 years) is a statutory requirement on all state-maintained special and mainstream schools in England since 1998. Our argument is that the enthusiasm for commonality has obscured the need to question the value and validity of baseline assessment schemes for children with special educational needs (and possibly some others such as children having English as an additional language). We illustrate this position with reference to data from our recent study on baseline assessment in England. The study encompassed survey data from a national sample of 982 schools, of which 107 were special schools. Between them, these special schools used 42 different baseline assessment schemes. Comparisons between our mainstream and special school respondents indicated that there were similarities in the nature and perceived value of the schemes used. However, special schools were less satisfied with their schemes. We suggest that a reappraisal of the nature and purpose of baseline assessment for pupils with special educational needs warrants greater critical debate. Without this, there is a danger that a stress on commonality, veiling an inclusion orthodoxy, will ultimately be counterproductive.     

How We Used to Build the Future: 30 Years of Collection Development Trends

This session highlighted trends in continuing resource collections and collection management throughout the 30-year period from 1985 through 2015. Electronic resources became available in the 1990s and grew in prevalence from the 2000s through the present, changing the make-up of library collections and also how libraries measure collections and collection usage. Two librarians and two vendors shared their perspectives on these changes in collection development, describing how library collections now contain a combination of older formats and older ways of collecting data, and new, electronic content and automated ways of collecting and disseminating data about collections.     

Classroom dialogue and science achievement

Conclusion This study indicates the responsibility that rests with the teacher in an activity-oriented classroom as far as providing the structural support necessary for effective learning (Note 4). The teacher is acting as a “surrogate textbook”. Using their own organization of knowledge-albiet wrong or incomplete-teachers provide the structure that is lacking. As the results indicate, some teachers can do this better than others. A challenge for teachers and teacher educators is to devise ways to improving the structure and sequencing of classroom dialogue. The TSA Technique could help here in two ways. It allows a sophisticated analysis of dialogue, indicating specific areas of weakness which could then be remedied by appropriate training. A similar approach has been used successfully with text material to rewrite and restructure deficient segments (Clarke; 1973). It could also be used to produce ideal “templates” of various models of teaching (e.g. Brady; 1985) for use as a guide for lesson planning.     

Exploring the relationship between early childhood and elementary grade-level overlap and early childhood teacher output

This study explores the relationship between grade-level overlap between elementary education (ELED) and early childhood education (ECED) licenses and ECED teacher output. Analysis of Title 2 data indicates that ECED/ELED overlap is extensive, as evidenced by the number of states with grade-level overlaps of 5 (n = 2), 4 (n = 24), 3 (n = 10), and 2 years (n = 7). In the 47 states with both types of credentials, ELED licensees may teach preschool in two states, kindergarten in 30, first grade in 41, second grade in 42, and third grade in 43. The percentage of ECED (relative to ELED) teacher licensure program completers is low in states where elementary licenses begin in preschool (5%), kindergarten (14%), and Grade 1 (23%), but higher in states where elementary licenses begin in Grades 2 (45%), 3 (44%), and 4 (70%).