Book Reviews

Zuckerman: Scientist Extraordinary by Bernard Donovan BioScientifica, Bristol, 2005, 555pp. ISBN 1‐901978249 £24.95 Negotiating licences for digital resources by Fiona Durrant Facet Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1 85604 586 2 Metadata for Information Management and Retrieval By David Haynes Facet Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1 85604 4890     

Open and distance learning in the Gobi Desert: Non‐formal education for nomadic women

The use of open and distance learning for non‐formal education is much less canvassed in the literature than for formal education. This paper provides a case study, grounded in practice, of the first open and distance learning for non‐formal education in Mongolia, a developing country undergoing rapid transition in the 1990s from a command to a market economy and from communism to a multi‐party democracy. The paper outlines the project and its context, explains the rationale for it, and analyses its achievements, limitations and lessons. It also identifies the additional problems for Open and Distance Education (ODE) in a context of rapid economic transition.     

School English,literature and the knowledge-base question

This article takes up questions about knowledge and the school curriculum with respect to literary studies within subject English. Its intention is to focus on literary studies in English from the context of current waves of curriculum reform, rather than as part of the conversations primarily within the field of English, to raise questions about the knowledge agenda, and the knowledge-base agenda for teaching and teacher education. The selection of texts and form of study of literature within the English curriculum has long been an area of controversy. Without assuming a particular position on knowledge in this area, this article shows that important questions of what knowledge-base teachers are expected to bring to their work are elided both in current regulations and debates, and in research on ‘good teaching’ in this area. If ‘literary studies’ (as a discipline or university major) is itself an unstable and changing field, what kind of knowledge does a good English teacher bring to their work? This paper takes up these questions in the context of the Australian Curriculum and standards for teacher registration, but it also points to the way these issues about knowledge are of broader relevance for researchers and teacher education.     

How Exemplar Counselor Advocates Develop Social Justice Interest: A Qualitative Investigation

The authors examined the experiences of 10 peer‐nominated exemplar counselor advocates using grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ). Analysis by the authors yielded a model of how exemplar counselor advocates develop a social justice interest and provided key insights on how counselor educators can enhance social justice interest in their students. Implications for supervisors and scholars are presented.     

A dialogue between partnership and feminism: deconstructing power and exclusion in higher education

Students as partners (SaP) has seen an increase in focus as an area of active student engagement in higher education. Many complexities and challenges have been shared in this evolving field regarding inclusivity and power. We discuss, in this dialogue, insights that can be uncovered by exploring SaP through a feminist lens – illuminating the fact that both fields seem to be seated in similar radical processes of challenging, questioning, destabilising, deconstructing, and empowering. We unravel issues of power and exclusion by exploring: what feminist theories might add to SaP; embedded binaries and what they reveal about power relations within the language of SaP; and ways of writing about SaP that are inclusive. We aim to step away from dominant understandings, incite acts of self-reflection, and open possibilities for future research and practice by questioning the boundaries and binaries that currently shape the institutions of higher education.