This study was an investigation into the ways in which two classes of six- and seven-year-old children in Hawaii talked about the media. The children were shown video clips from a variety of media and asked to respond both orally and in writing. The qualitative data gathered in this study were researcher notes, video and audio-taped focus group…

Considerable research has been undertaken into the issue of Sino foreign strategic alliances in the area of higher education, particularly since the late 1990s, when universities in China signed an increasing large number of alliance agreements with foreign universities (Willis 2000, 2005a). Although there has been considerable research regarding…

This article presents a critical analysis of how the issue of childhood "sexualization"--and the role of consumer culture within it--has been defined and framed, both within the public debate and in the academic research literature. It counterposes this with some evidence taken from a study conducted in Scotland in 2009/10 about the…

Commercial activities in U.S. public elementary and secondary schools have been growing in visibility throughout the last decade, a period characterized by tightened school budgets. As visibility has increased, so have concerns about commercial activities that generate cash, equipment, or other types of assistance and their potential effects on…

Based on interviews with private-tutoring-business entrepreneurs, this paper provides a qualitative analysis of some organizational and ideological transformations in the teacher profession with the advent of market professionals within the private-education sector. No longer simply a means to generate additional income, the private-tutoring…

Identifying higher education cost drivers and working to limit their effects appears to be a necessity if higher education is to retain the support historically allocated by society. Costs occur for three groups: students, institutions, and society. This paper summarizes information about cost drivers in higher education and identifies two that…

Emerging peer-to-peer communication via social media, and the role of influential peers, is changing the way that marketers communicate with prospects. The model is changing from a sender-receiver model to one that includes influential peer-to-peer and receiver-to-sender communication. This research examines this phenomenon in the context of…

It is no secret that global markets and innovations in technology are driving rapid change in the U.S. economy. While much has been said over the years about the employment shift from goods-producing to service-providing industries, new research suggests that the shift is not due to sectoral employment change but rather a shift in the mix of jobs…

Many critics do censure marketers of junk food for their part in inundating every private and public space with health-harming products and slick advertisements. The author focuses on one such company to illustrate how the dangerous influences of corporate ideology on schooling effect much more than public health--they also work to shape the ways…

A new curricular approach called Entrepreneurs in Action! was developed to encourage development of entrepreneurial thinking, including thinking "outside of a structured setting" and demonstrating creativity in problem solving. The effects of the Entrepreneurs in Action! program on the development of entrepreneurial thinking among…

"Creative business services" have grown rapidly in Great Britain and are important in terms of their impact on the economy, including their contribution to international trade. They have helped and been boosted by such business changes as privatization, spread of information technology (IT), and contracting out of services. The sectors…

Based on four years of experience teaching computers to 8-12 year olds, media scholar Ellen Seiter offers parents and educators practical advice on what children need to know about the Internet and when they need to know it. "The Internet Playground" argues that, contrary to the promises of technology boosters, teaching with computers is…

"The network" has achieved a form of "institutionalized utopianism" in the recent past and is posited as a neo-liberal solution to social scientific researchers and education practitioners learning with and from one another. This paper first outlines why the metaphor of the network is so persuasive. It goes on to problematize some of the key…

College expectations play an important role in students' success at an institution. Braxton et al. (1994) found that if expectations are met, students are more likely to persist than if they are unmet. One potential contributor to college expectations is media (Tobolowsky, 2001). Prior research concludes that colleges that play in bowl games…

These proceedings document the fifth year of the "Brick and Click Libraries Symposium", held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. Thirty five peer-reviewed papers and abstracts, written by academic librarians, and presented at the symposium are included in this volume. Many of the entries have…