Freedom of information and its impact in the United Kingdom     

Patrick Birkinshaw 《Government Information Quarterly》2010

The UK Parliament passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in November 2000 after 3 years of government White Papers, consultation papers, and various Bills. The author served as special adviser to the House of Commons Select Committee on Public Administration which oversaw the Government proposals for legislation and the progress of the Bill into the House of Commons. The FOIA introduced pro-active publication of information via Publication Schemes, which were introduced on a staggered basis across the public sector and on January 1, 2005, rights of individual access were granted to individuals. The Act covers well over 100,000 public authorities in the UK and includes both Houses of Parliament. There is a power to add private bodies to the Act's coverage. The Act covers UK, English, Welsh, and Northern Irish public authorities. Scotland has its own FOIA which was enacted by the Scottish Parliament in 2002. The paper will examine the operation of the UK legislation and the role of the Information Commissioner and the Information Tribunal which deal with complaints of refusal and appeals respectively. The jurisprudence has been voluminous and now the English courts are beginning to hear appeals from the tribunal. The article will examine the major trends of the legislation and the problems presented by the legislation. The Government has already issued vetoes under the Act overriding the Commissioner's decision to grant access to the Cabinet papers relating to the Cabinet discussion on entering into war with Iraq and then on devolution of power to Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The decisions to open up the files on MPs expenses have caused one of the major constitutional crises in the UK in the last 75 years. As well as examining the way the Act has been interpreted, the author will essay some preliminary analyses of the impact of the Act on the realization of government objectives in passing the Act. The FOIA does sit alongside other legislation allowing access to personal files and access to environmental information and the whole information debate is set in the context of heightened sensitivity and secrecy in time of the war on terror and the state's increasing capacity to demand, store, and share information. The UK experience of the information debate will be examined.  相似文献   

Developments in special education in Ireland: deep structures and policy making     

Patrick McDonnell 《International Journal of Inclusive Education》2013,17(3):259-269

Clinical discourses from the domains of medicine and psychology exert a powerful influence on theory and practice in special education. These discourses first define disability as ‘an individual human condition’ and locate ‘the problem’ in the physiological and psychological characteristics of the individual. Second, they privilege the role of experts and exclude the perspectives of disabled people themselves. In spite of considerable criticism, psycho-medical definitions of and responses to disability have been incorporated into educational legislation in Ireland and continue to dominate policy development in special education. The real danger of failing to address these deep structures in special education is that exclusion and marginalization will be reproduced even in well-intentioned and well-supported programmes.  相似文献   

Inclusion of pupils with intellectual disabilities: primary school teachers' attitudes and willingness in a rural area in Uganda     

Patrick Ojok 《International Journal of Inclusive Education》2013,17(9):1003-1021

Teachers in regular schools have a responsibility to accommodate the needs and interests of all learners. The attitudes and willingness of teachers to include learners with intellectual disabilities in their classes in regular schools in a district with a semi-nomadic pastoral population in north-eastern Uganda was investigated. A survey of 125 school teachers was conducted, using an attitude scale and a willingness sub-scale. The results showed slightly more positive than negative attitudes, and more willingness than unwillingness to teach learners with intellectual disabilities. Attendance of workshops and seminars had a positive impact on teacher attitudes and willingness towards inclusive education. The findings are discussed with reference to historical–cultural characteristics of the district, as well as pupil and teacher characteristics.  相似文献   

A Memoir of Co‐Mentoring: The “We” that is “Me”     

C.T. Patrick Diamond 《Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning》2013,21(2):199-209

The author’s academic journey in learning to mentor and be co‐mentored involved three rites of passage. In this reflective essay (invited paper), the author acknowledges his most influential co‐mentors—former dissertation supervisees and long since colleagues—who helped form the “we” that is him. The first phase coincided with a constraining time in research and supervision. The author co‐published only a few journal articles and mainly with one mentee. During his second stage in Toronto, Canada, he experienced an exponential increase in co‐publication. This was a natural extension of mutually beneficial working relationships and successful doctoral defenses. Like a trusted friend, a mentor can guide his or her charges as they set out to discover and realize the potential within. The responsive form of learning in partnership enacted a version of collective action among equals. The author became a collaborative arts‐based‐educational researcher‐mentor: a hyphenated collection of selves. Since having returned to Australia, he co‐mentors early career academics seeking to publish and use writing as and for their professional development.  相似文献   

Classroom walkthroughs to improve teaching and learning     

Patrick Westcott 《Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning》2013,21(4):453-458

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Drug prevention for young people with social,emotional and behavioural difficulties attending special education provision     

Patrick McCrystal 《Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties》2013,18(4):305-314

The levels of drug use amongst school‐aged young people have risen over the past decade. Prevention initiatives have been developed using empirical evidence obtained from school‐based surveys. The empirical evidence base of drug use amongst young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) attending special education provision is very limited. The implications of this knowledge gap for addressing drug use amongst these young people are explored in this paper. Proposals for the way forward are suggested, for developing a framework for targeted evidence‐based interventions for young people attending emotional and behavioural difficulty units.  相似文献   

LGBTQ literature in middle school classrooms: possibilities for challenging heteronormative environments     

Elizabeth G. Dinkins  Patrick Englert 《Sex education》2013,13(4):392-405

This paper uses a case study approach to examine how the heteronormative nature of one middle school setting and classroom environment shapes the climate of safety, support and learning for LGBTQ students when they are engaged in studying a novel with a gay character. Heteronormative environments inform and shape positioning of and by students and teacher, impacting how knowledge is created, processed and applied. LGBTQ literature integrated into the classroom curriculum invites opportunities for possibilities through windows and mirrors for exploration of the world and self. Heteronormativity, positioning and LGBTQ literature thereby become interactive catalysts that create and foreclose possibilities and impossibilities for student learning. Three themes emerged from the study that reveal positioning and possibilities when studying a text with a gay character: (1) the school environment and classroom context positioned students as heterosexual; (2) students and teacher positioned gender performance and sexual identity as other; and (3) while the text acted as both a window and a mirror, the teacher and students consistently framed different, and sometimes contradictory, views for each other. Together, these themes reflect a nested understanding of gender performance and sexual identity that subscribed to heterosexual norms and limited possibilities for LGBTQ students.  相似文献   

“Emerging” organized crime hypotheses in criminology textbooks: The case of African-American organized crime     

Sean Patrick Griffin 《Journal of Criminal Justice Education》2013,24(2):287-301

Contemporary textbooks exhibit competing historical perspectives regarding so-called “emerging” organized crime groups. Some texts argue that organized crime committed by groups other than Sicilian/Italian-Americans is now emerging. Others hold that many of the “emerging” groups have been organizing crime for some time and that it is the research in this area that is emerging. This paper briefly examines these propositions, presenting the two groups of thought regarding African-American organized crime. The author then presents a literature review of African-American organized crime research to assist scholars and instructors attempting to better understand the competing perspectives.  相似文献   

Using Gestalt theory to teach document design and graphics     

Patrick Moore  Chad Fitz 《Technical Communication Quarterly》2013,22(4):389-410

Gestalt psychology principles of figure‐ground segregation, symmetry, closure, proximity, good continuation, and similarity provide a simple yet powerful analytic vocabulary for discussing page layout and graphics. The six principles apply readily to typography, white space, data tables and maps, the relation between graphics and text, and other facets of textual design. The principles explain many difficulties that readers have in processing texts and graphics, and they explain why well‐designed pages and graphics are effective.  相似文献   

Developmental Education: The Cost Literature and What We Can Learn From It     

D. Patrick Saxon 《Community College Journal of Research & Practice》2013,37(8):494-506

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