Environmental attitudes of pre-service teachers: A conceptual and methodological dilemma in cross-cultural data collection

Human generated environmental problems are significant issues of global concern. Despite this, varying attitudes towards environments continue to exist across the globe, impacting on environmental decision-making and action at local, national and international levels. This paper probes some of the similarities and differences in environmental attitudes amongst pre-service teachers in Australia, Republic of Maldives and Indonesia. Data were collected using an established environmental attitude questionnaire and individual interviews. The three communities exhibited a similar range of environmental attitudes using the established questionnaire but significant differences emerged when the interview data were analysed phenomenographically. These differences reflect diversity within and across cultural groups that cannot be satisfactorily explained by the theory underpinning the established questionnaire. Consequently, a revised conceptual framework is proposed.     

Virtual and non‐virtual realities: the changing roles of libraries and librarians

What is the future for libraries and their librarians? In trying to give an answer to this pressing question we do not deal with utopian libraries of the next century, but with the library and the librarian of the next decade. The emphasis is on libraries within educational and research institutions, especially university libraries. We examine the changes confronting the library of the future and identify four key aspects of the library of the future. It will be (i) a gateway to information, whatever format this information comes in and wherever it is located; (ii) an expertise centre; (iii) a physical entity, not only in the sense of being a social meeting place and place of scholarly interaction, but also as a place where students and other users are provided with modern study facilities and adequate user support; and (iv) a collection centre of printed material. Such libraries can only take on an appropriate shape and will only survive if the institutions that librarians serve in meet the four criteria outlined above. We look at the demands that will be made on professional library knowledge and skills and the new job responsibilities and job attitudes required.     

Interdisciplinary scholarly collaboration in data-intensive,public-funded,international digital humanities project work

The information practices of collaborative interdisciplinary researchers, especially in distributed environments, remain understudied. Embracing the naturalistic paradigm, this qualitative case study relies upon semi-structured interviews, snowball sampling, and grounded analysis. Based on interviews with 53 participants from 11 Digging Into Data 3 (DID3, 2014-2016) projects, this study examines the working practices of scholars (library and information science professionals, humanists, and computer scientists) engaging in collaborative, international, data-intensive, publicly-funded interdisciplinary research. Benefits of such work include avoiding redundancy, exploding disciplinary silos, and more ambitious, larger-scale outputs. Challenges and lessons learned center on innovation, flexibility, and failure, translation, intermediaries, divisions of labor and delegation of responsibilities and tasks, conflict resolution, technology, outputs and publication, and timeframe, sustainability, and infrastructure.     

A Comparative Analysis of Graduate Employment Prospects in European Labour Markets: A Study of Graduate Recruitment in Four Countries

The aim of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of higher education and the graduate labour markets in selected European countries (France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom) in the context of the expectations of graduates and prospective employers, and respective recruitment and selection practices. Expectations of graduating students from a number of European collaborating universities are sought and analysed in order to find out about a match between the knowledge and skills of graduates and the needs of European employers. The study examines the process of graduate recruitment, employee and employer expectations, and the role of higher education institutions in meeting such expectations. Primary data was gathered from 252 employers and 485 final year (graduating) students through the use of questionnaires. The analysis of the data collected has revealed different approaches to but similar methods of graduate recruitment between the four countries. Despite the current differences in higher education systems and labour market trends, the expectations of employers and graduating students are more similar than different. It is concluded that EU graduates will have good employment prospects in an integrated labour market.     

The Development and Evaluation of the Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory for Use With Counselors-in-Training

As counselor preparation programs are compelled to demonstrate student social and cultural competence, valid inventories are needed to measure development consistent with contemporary standards. The Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory was created for this purpose, was assessed using 4 types of validity evidence, and has results supporting its use in student development.     

Videotutoring, non-verbal communication and initial teacher training

Telematics has the potential to transform Higher Education through creating a distributed community of tutors and students. Videotutoring is central to telematics, enabling personal tutoring to occur at a distance. Within the context of a post-graduate teacher training course, videotutoring was used to tutor two students during the first six weeks of their first full-time school placement. Both ends of the videosignal were recorded. Analysis of the tapes used a protocol based upon research into non-verbal communication (NVC). NVC is as important as verbal communication in the tutorial process. Findings suggest that the interaction of participants mediated through the screen was significantly different from face-to-face communication in relation to the two-dimensional image of the screen and the "viewing frame" effect of the physical boundaries of the image. The viewing frame literally served as the proscenium arch of a theatre. Two-dimensionality and the viewing frame effect emphasised both the positive and negative elements in inter-personal communication as represented in Argyle's social skills and Goffman's theatrical models. The conclusion is that videotutoring can potentially be a more effective form of tutoring than face-to-face interaction.