As “teaching libraries,” many academic libraries are committed to teaching not only in classrooms but also at the reference desk. As reference has expanded to include digital…
Abstract
As “teaching libraries,” many academic libraries are committed to teaching not only in classrooms but also at the reference desk. As reference has expanded to include digital modes of e‐mail and chat, reference librarians are prompted to consider approaches to teaching in these new reference venues in ways that are meaningful to the user. A promising approach to teaching through digital reference is the application of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards. This paper presents some challenges and benefits of teaching via digital reference. Practical methods for promoting self‐directed learning by examining online instruction, and suggestions for effectively advancing a pedagogy based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards, are offered.
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Jason Goulah and Sonia W. Soltero
This chapter examines in-service teachers’ transformed perspectives and practices for educating emergent bilinguals resulting from graduate study in a bilingual education graduate…
Abstract
This chapter examines in-service teachers’ transformed perspectives and practices for educating emergent bilinguals resulting from graduate study in a bilingual education graduate program in Chicago. This examination is contextualized in consideration of emergent bilinguals relative to the changing face of P-12 classrooms and gaps in teacher education. Findings from autoethnographic and discourse analytic inquiry suggest that teacher preparation in bilingual education (1) prepared and empowered in-service teachers to meet the academic, social, and cultural-linguistic needs of emergent bilinguals in their classrooms and (2) fostered a conscious inner transformation in in-service teachers that resulted in new ways and purposes of interacting with emergent bilingual students, their families, and colleagues. Findings also suggest that although there is institutional progress in meeting emergent bilinguals’ needs, it is incremental and insufficient. There are three major deficiencies: (1) new and increased teacher education standards lack the required specialized coursework in the education of emergent bilinguals; (2) teacher preparation of emergent bilinguals is inadequate; and (3) teacher preparation programs resist requiring specialized coursework in teaching emergent bilinguals.
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Popular self-help pregnancy literature suggests a “generational disconnect” between pregnant women and their mothers, emphasizing the incommensurate experiences of the two…
Abstract
Popular self-help pregnancy literature suggests a “generational disconnect” between pregnant women and their mothers, emphasizing the incommensurate experiences of the two generations. Based on longitudinal, in-depth interviews with a diverse group of 64 pregnant women and 23 grandmothers-to-be, this chapter explores how different generations of women negotiate the idea of a disconnect and its implications for the medicalization of pregnancy. My findings showed limited support for the generational disconnect. Nearly all of the pregnant women I interviewed who were in contact with their mothers consulted them to assess issues related to pregnancy embodiment. Black and Latina women and white women with less than a college degree disregarded or even rejected the disconnect; they tended to frame their mothers’ advice as relevant. Their mothers attended prenatal care appointments and frequently expressed skepticism about medical directives. By contrast, I found that highly educated white women tended to endorse the generational disconnect when it came to matters related to pregnancy health behaviors – what to eat, how much to exercise – and their obstetric care. The mothers of these women not only largely supported the generational disconnect, but also bonded with their daughter over a shared appreciation for scientific understandings of pregnancy. Foregrounding women’s perspectives provides insights into meaning-making in pregnancy and the ways that mothers of pregnant women can both stymie and deepen medicalization of childbearing.
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The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the picture of the nature of integrated models for information behaviour from the perspective of conceptual growth in this field of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the picture of the nature of integrated models for information behaviour from the perspective of conceptual growth in this field of study.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual analysis focusing on the ways in which the researchers have developed integrated models. The study concentrates on seven key models proposed by Bates, Choo and associates, Godbold, Robson and Robinson, and Wilson.
Findings
Researchers have employed four main approaches to develop integrated models. First, such frameworks are based on the juxtaposition of individual models. Second, integrated models are built by cross-tabulating the components of diverse models. Third, such models are constructed by relating similar components of individual models. Finally, integrated models are built by incorporating components taken from diverse frameworks. The integrated models have contributed to conceptual growth in three major ways: first, by integrating formerly separate parts of knowledge; second, by generalizing and explaining lower abstraction-level knowledge through higher level constructs; and third, by expanding knowledge by identifying new characteristics of the object of study.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are based on the comparison of seven models only. The integrated frameworks of information retrieval were excluded from the study.
Originality/value
The study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis the nature of integrated models for information behaviour. The findings contribute to the identification of the key factors of information behaviour.
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Daniel Briggs, Luke Telford, Anthony Lloyd and Anthony Ellis
This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper’s 15 open-ended interviews with adult social care workers are complemented by digital ethnography in COVID-19 social media forums. This data set is taken from a global mixed-methods study, involving over 2,000 participants from 59 different countries.
Findings
Workers reported a lack of planning, guidance and basic provisions including personal protective equipment. Work intensification brought stress, workload pressure and mental health problems. Family difficulties and challenges of living through the pandemic, often related to government restrictions, intensified these working conditions with precarious living arrangements. The workers also relayed a myriad of challenges for their residents in which, the circumstances appear to have exacerbated dementia and general health problems including dehydration, delirium and loneliness. Whilst COVID-19 was seen as partially responsible for resident deaths, the sudden disruptions to daily life and prohibitions on family visits were identified as additional contributing factors in rapid and sudden decline.
Research limitations/implications
Whilst the paper’s sample cohort is small, given the significance of COVID-19 at this present time the findings shed important light on the care home experience as well as act as a baseline for future study.
Social implications
Care homes bore the brunt of illness and death during the first and second COVID-19 waves in the UK, and many of the problems identified here have still yet to be actioned by the government. As people approach the summer months, an urgent review is required of what happened in care homes and this paper could act as some part of that evidence gathering.
Originality/value
This paper offers revealing insights from frontline care home workers and thus provides an empirical snapshot during this unique phase in recent history. It also builds upon the preliminary/emerging qualitative research evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted care homes, care workers and the residents.
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Jessica Mantei and Lisa Kervin
Being “literate” is well established as key to active civic participation, right from the earliest years of life. Young children’s natural curiosity and motivation to understand…
Abstract
Purpose
Being “literate” is well established as key to active civic participation, right from the earliest years of life. Young children’s natural curiosity and motivation to understand the world and their places within it through playful explorations offers rich opportunities for learning. Reported here are findings from a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics) project drawing on problem solving, inquiry and reflection through storytelling.
Design/methodology/approach
Responding to a playful scenario, children 12 months–6 years examined and tested properties of different materials to make a waterproof prototype for a soft toy. Subsequent testing occurred along with a narrative story about themselves and their toys experiencing different rain events.
Findings
Evident in the data was the children’s capacity to take up domain-specific language, intentionality in creating their own artifacts and stories, and the development and control of narratives within the play.
Originality/value
Argued here is that the arts, particularly making and storytelling, are powerful platforms from which to support young children’s complex knowledge and literacy development for active participation in the world.