Food (in)security communication: a Journal of Applied Communication Research forum addressing current challenges and future possibilities

ABSTRACT

This forum brings together food, (in)security, and communication. The authors participating in this forum center communication as both process and tool for understanding, mitigating, and making meaning of food (in)security. The nine authors together discuss the role of communication in food (in)security, the central challenges for scholars and practitioners working on food (in)security, and the creative possibilities and impacts influencing the future of food (in)security. The forum produces a call for applied scholars to re-imagine communication frameworks in order to make meaningful differences in their communities.     

The Use of Time by Academic and Related Staff

This paper reviews surveys of the use of time by academic staff between 1962 and 1994. It reports on the findings of a time diary survey in 1994 of the use of time by academic and academic-related staff at British'old'universities during working weeks in term-time and vacation. The results of the time diary survey are analysed according to respondents'sex, staff grade, type of week, age, type of work, and time when work took place. The results are compared with results of previous surveys, and trends through time are suggested. In conclusion, the paper considers the recent mass expansion of higher education, the effects of this in increasing the workload of university staff, and measures to ameliorate this situation.     

Accurate assessment of the brake torque on a rope-braked cycle ergometer

Sports Engineering - A Monark cycle ergometer is a device globally used in physiological studies to measure the work and energy levels of exercising humans. In this paper a rope-braked cycle...     

Alternative technologies and social studies textbooks

In order to determine the potential of alternative technologies in social studies education, we must understand the goals of such education, the capabilities of the technologies, and teachers’ and students’ responses to new technologies. The author suggests that the new technologies can contribute to the goals of learning about the past, learning about democratic life and institutions, and making students knowledgeable as consumers and producers of information. One major obstacle is a lack of time and money for teachers to experiment with the technologies. Stephen T. Kerr is professor of education in the College of Education at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the application of new technologies in schools and other educational environments, and particularly on the ways in which technology affects the social structure (roles and expectations, instructional patterns, organization) of those institutions. He has done work on human-computer interaction, as well as on how new communication technologies have changed the educational system of the former USSR.     

RESEARCH SECTION: Examining the nature and perceived causes of indiscipline in Zimbabwean secondary schools

The problem of student indiscipline is an issue of concern for teachers and parents around the world. Teachers need to maintain student discipline and for them to do so it is important that they also understand the nature of discipline problems. This study, by Lawrence Kofi Ametepee, who is studying for a PhD in special education, Morgan Chitiyo, board certified behaviour analyst and Assistant Professor of Special Education, both at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA, and Susan Abu, who is currently a graduate student in the Department of Women's Studies at Texas Women's University, was designed to examine the nature and perceived causes of student indiscipline in Zimbabwean secondary schools. The authors anticipate that such an examination will promote teachers’, parents’ and policy makers’ understanding of student indiscipline, which will, in turn, enhance disciplinary policies and practices, making schools safer for all students and more effective in their role as educational and socialising agents.