Planning for the Budget-ocalypse: The Evolution of a Serials/ER Cancellation Methodology

The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries are funded almost entirely by undergraduate student use fees. As the undergraduate enrollment has plateaued in recent years, the libraries have not been able to keep up with rising costs, resulting in a series of cuts to the materials budget totaling around $3.25 million. While some of these cuts took the form of reductions in firm orders and dissolution of approval plans, for the past three years the bulk has come from cancellations of serials and electronic resources. With each year’s cuts, the UNT Collection Development department has been forced to modify and refine their deselection process. This article will show the development of UNT’s strategy for determining cancellations using a variety of methods (overlap analysis, usage statistics, faculty input) and tools (EBSCO Usage Consolidation, Serials Solutions 360).     

Code and Habitus: comparing the accounts of Bernstein and Bourdieu

This paper compares Bourdieu's notion of habitus with Bernstein's concept of code in an attempt to show how the apparent similarities mask more deeply seated differences in the way the concepts are conceived and used. We argue that Bernstein is following an essentially structuralist agenda of the kind that Bourdieu has set himself against. To this end, Bourdieu seeks to overcome the rigidities of ‘rules’ (which lie at the heart of the idea of Bernstein's code), with the more flexible notion of ‘strategy’ which incorporates the idea that structure and agency are implicit in each other rather than being dichotomous entities.     

Consulting with children and young people who have disabilities: views of accessibility to education

The Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils' Educational Records) (Scotland) Act 2002 requires local authorities to prepare and implement an accessibility strategy to improve access to education for young people with disabilities. In this article, Dr Richard Woolfson, Principal Psychologist, Michael Harker, Depute Principal Psychologist, Dorothy Lowe, Senior Psychologist, Mary Shields, Senior Psychologist, and Hilary Mackintosh, Research Assistant, all from Renfrewshire Educational Psychology Service, report the response of one local authority. Staff from the psychological service carried out a two-stage research study with children and young people. Stage One involved a postal questionnaire for 290 pupils with a range of disabilities; parents and carers were asked to assist their children with the questionnaire. Stage Two involved young people with disabilities in a number of focus groups. The results recorded here confirm that the area of greatest pupil satisfaction is physical access to the school environment. Few problems are identified regarding access to information from school and most pupils with disability consider that their opinions are listened to and respected. Other findings suggest that pupils with disability generally view their teachers as supportive, while pupils often struggle to complete homework. Further, the pupils indicated that they would like to be more closely consulted about access to the curriculum, working independently and the provision of support. Older students suggested that preparation for post-school options should start much earlier. In the light of these findings, the authors discuss recommendations for future practice and for further research.     

Improving methods of consulting with young people: Piloting a new model of consultation

National and international legislation has increasingly placed a duty on professionals to consult with young people about matters affecting their lives. Consequently, conducting consultation exercises with young people in order to improve the quality of services available is becoming established practice in many areas. Following on from previous research which asked children and young people about ways they prefer to be consulted, this study developed a new model of consultation to enhance the effectiveness of meetings that young people attend in order to discuss their additional support needs. This model was implemented in a series of consultation meetings in three secondary schools, and was evaluated by examining the views of the key stakeholders (pupils, parents, school staff, visiting professionals) through questionnaires and interviews. The findings suggest that this new model did have a positive impact on the young people who were involved and was perceived positively by all stakeholder groups. This model can provide guidance for EPs and other professionals who wish to effectively involve children and young people in the consultation process.     

On Reproduction,Habitus and Education

This paper sets out to demonstrate that Bourdieu's critics who claim that his theory is structurally frozen’, with no room for human agency misperceive the basis of the theory. The relationships between his theory and education are summarised and the concept of habitus explicated. Then drawing on Outline of a Theory of Practice, the determinants of practice are shown to incorporate change and human agency. This is then related to an examination of education as cultural practice, and some comments made in that light on a recent paper by Willis, and ‘Origins and Destinations’.