John W. Robertson

People’s Watchdogs or Government Poodles? Scotland’s National Broadsheets and the Second Iraq War

From the First World War to the Iraq War in 2003, academics have analysed the performance of the media, especially the press, in fulfilling a watchdog role by offering an independent critique of government and military actions. The overrepresentation of government or military voices and the underrepresentation of other affected groups has been repeatedly asserted. National broadsheet newspapers represent a critical element in a nation’s public sphere, ideally fulfilling a ‘watchdog’ function on behalf of the citizenry, and so attract higher expectations of quality than tabloids or, arguably, television. This study, using a content analysis of Scotland’s two national broadsheets, The Herald and The Scotsman, reveals an over whelming emphasis on reporting military achievements or movements. By contrast, the massive damage to infrastructure, to public health and the environment and to civil order, resulting from massive high ordnance bombing and from the destruction of institutions of law and order, received very little attention. Furthermore, out of 2775 reports, only a very small number, given the scale of the fatalities and injuries, covered the daily toll of civilians and only a tiny handful featured the voices of Iraqis or other Arab/Islamic groups. Following theoretical pieces on Hermann and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model by Klaehn and by Corner, this article offers an empirically based context within which to consider the debate. In addition, the extent to which these results offer evidence of the accuracy or otherwise of Livingston and Eachus’s Indexing Hypothesis and Edward Said’s Orientalism is discussed.

The ambiguous embrace: twenty years of IT (ICT) in UK primary schools

School inspection reports, at the end of the 20th Century, in both Scottish and English primary schools, clearly identify the use of ICT as the weakest aspect of professional practice. On this evidence, despite initial certainty of political purpose and considerable optimism regarding its effects on teaching and learning, ICT remains, after twenty years, a marginal force in the education of 5‐12 year-olds. Though numerous research studies in the 1980’s and 1990’s seemed to have identified the conditions for the effective transfer of ICT into primary schools and repeated governmental initiatives invested heavily in both infrastructure and training, teachers have not embraced ICT within their core practice. This paper suggests that the adoption of exclusively rational, perhaps hyper-rational, methodologies, by researchers working in the mainstream of schools and teacher education institutions has resulted in a failure to understand the complex cultural, psychological and political characteristics of schools. Alternative avenues for research are proposed.

Paradise Lost: Children, multimedia and the myth of interactivity

The dramatic expansion of IT use in the primary schools of South-West Scotland, in the mid-1980s, centred on highly interactive and pupil-empowering forms such as LOGO or database management software. While later forms of IT in education which have come to dominate computer-use in the same area, such as multimedia encyclopaedias and ‘living books’, are worthwhile, their surface sophistication and information richness does not compensate for reduced interactivity levels and the consequent loss of learner engagement and control. The uncritical adoption of technological advances combined with reduced local authority resources to drive curriculum development have resulted in failure to embed one of the most radical educational initiatives of the late twentieth-century.

The influence of friends and family vs The Simpsons: Scottish adolescents’ media choices

Increased emphasis on celebrity, and the growing cultural importance of the Internet, help drive continuing anxiety about the influence of the media on the young. Though recent empirical studies of celebrity and media influence on adolescents have produced mixed findings, there has been a tendency by researchers to test for celebrity and media influence on samples in a manner which precludes juxtaposing these influences with those produced by family, peer group, school, or within other ‘local’ contexts. The media themselves continue to raise alarm about the impact of the Internet. An exploratory investigation was made of Scottish adolescents’ media choices, using a widespread questionnaire‐based survey of 427 secondary year‐two pupils (13‐ to 14‐year‐olds) in 2002. This was a ‘scoping’ study which will lead to further qualitative research, but it did produce evidence that parental and school influences remain strong. The influence of media personalities is visible in the responses but is comparatively weak. There is no evidence in the choices reported by the informants, in any of the media considered, of the salience of violence or sexuality. Much more common is interest in humour, in human relationships and personal drama, in sport and in science fantasy. The study notes in passing evidence of local cultural strengths and also considerable diversity, along with American and other global influences.

Does permeation work? promoting the use of information technology in teacher education

Abstract Initial Teacher Education Centres have a crucial role in promoting the use of Information Technology in schools through the opportunity to influence new teachers. Valid educational justification, combined with the need to limit course congestion, have resulted in enthusiasm for permeated approaches. The results of a survey of United Kingdom teacher education centres suggest concern about the effectiveness of permeated approaches, especially in the areas of school experience and the ‘non-numeric’ disciplines. The potential educational benefits resulting from a permeated approach are restated and a commitment on the part of institutions to support initiatives which may lead to their realisation is called for.

‘Quality and quantity’: the value of online seminars for media and cultural studies undergraduates

Much previous research into the effectiveness of CMC has suffered from a lack of clarity or of consistency in the adoption and explication of coding typologies or taxonomies. This has reduced the opportunities for comparison between studies and for the accumulation of evidences to guide pedagogy. In addition, most studies of CMC have used postgraduate students from the sciences, mathematics and engineering as their subjects. There is a notable dearth of studies with undergraduate students and, in particular, with students in the arts, social sciences and humanities. In this study, 104 undergraduate students on media‐related programmes undertook a three‐week online discussion (CMC) on the nature of cultural globalisation. The quality of the discussion was evaluated using an enhanced taxonomy rooted in Bloom and other more recent writers. The pattern of dialogue was also mapped and represented graphically. The results suggest that CMC as a method for enhancing peer‐led discussion of theoretical concepts, with media arts undergraduates, can be very effective. This article makes a contribution to thinking about the evaluation of CMC learning experiences and offers recommendations on maximising the quality for the learner of such experiences.

Online Political Discourse on UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and Archbishop Desmond Tutu: The Domain of Atavistic Trolls or Ethical Beings?

Bishop Desmond Tutus call, in 2013, for former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to be tried for war crimes, led to much reporting and comment in the online pages of UK newspapers. At first sight, it was a topic that seemed particularly conducive to the attraction of trolling, flaming and Ebile in the comments posted below journalistic pieces. Both Tutu and Blair are controversial and divisive characters, and the context of the Iraq War seemed fertile ground for heated exchanges. A content analysis of 2,476 comments and 27,970 likes/dislikes offered a fairly substantial for identification of and evaluation of the value this discourse. In the event, trolling, flaming and Ebile were rare in the context of this political discourse, suggesting, at least a form of discourse closer to the ideals of Habermas.

Pulling up the Longest Roots: Extending the Role of Scottish Teacher Education in Undermining Notions of Ethnic Primacy, Exclusivity and Superiority

The process of constructing a national, ethnic or other group identity takes place over long periods of time and typically against a background of other comparable processes. This results in myths of origin and achievement, the denial of internal diversity, the sharpening of external distinctions and the development of negative comparative definitions. These hardened and definitive models of identity reduce group adaptiveness to change, stifle cultural and economic activity and create recurring opportunities for conflict. More sophisticated models which highlight, for example, settlement prior to the arrival of the current group defining itself as indigenous or aboriginal, the continuity of population movement over longer periods, the borrowing of cultural and technological developments from groups whose descendants are now perceived as a threat, may play an important part in countering the negative consequences of simplistic versions. Teacher education, especially in preparation for the education of 5–14-year-olds, who remain highly susceptible to attitudinal change, has a crucial role. This role extends beyond the more obvious areas of professional studies, religious, moral and values education to areas such as mathematics, language, the expressive arts and to history where there are significant opportunities to contribute to the development of sophisticated, positive and fluid models of group identity.

Do They Know Who They are? A Survey of Informed Opinion on the Identity Formation of Scotland's Schoolchildren

The notion that there is a crisis of identity formation in the young people of Western Europe and North America has attracted a great deal of attention and speculation from academics, politicians and journalists. Relatively absent from the debate have been the voices of key professionals - head teachers in schools, local authority advisers with remits in personal and social developments, curriculum agency officers and teacher educators. A series of intensive semi-structured interviews with 22 of these informed observers, working across Scotland, produced data that suggests considerable diversity of opinion but, critically, a more relaxed view of the current situation. Few respondents perceived a crisis as such, locating problems in a minority of young people from problematic backgrounds. Most identified areas of concern with regard to the effectiveness of curricula aimed at personal and social development but in many cases these may have reflected the professional standpoints or interests of interviewees rather than any more widely accepted problem.

Teaching Controversial Issues: The Attitudes of Student Primary Teachers

Guidelines for Scottish schools have little to say on the value or otherwise of controversy as a criterion for the selection of topics for teaching. By contrast, the authors of the recently published advisory report on citizenship education for schools in England and Wales and many writers in academic and pedagogical journals are enthusiastic about the importance of such topics as a means to developing democratic citizenship. This study sought to establish the views of beginning teachers in South-west Scotland. Eighty-seven final-year student teachers for the 5–12 age range took part in the study over a period of two years. The data gathered reveal considerable variety in responses but a clear rejection of issues involving personal, face-to-face violence by contrast with zealous enthusiasm for teaching using issues of perhaps equally tragic consequences but of a more impersonal nature such as famine or pollution-associated disease. The potentially explanatory variables - chronological and spatial or geographic distance - were helpful in understanding some choices but the presence of other variables made interpretation extremely complex and uncertain.