Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including…

As neo-Aristotelian character education approaches have become more popular, the list of objections has increased too. This paper focuses on the objection that while character education proponents claim to be 'progressive' and 'reformative' they seem to maintain the educational status quo. This paper examines what happens to neo-Aristotelian…

In this article we argue that the legitimacy and stability of the social and political order in Britain is undermined by persistent inequalities of skills and opportunities. We first contend that British society is characterised by a liberal regime of social cohesion. Crucial to such a regime is the belief in individual opportunity and rewards…

Research with South Asian families of individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) suggests an increased fear of stigma and isolation from the community. Evidence on attitudes towards ID among the wider community is very limited and was the focus of the present study. Responses were collected from 737 college students aged 16-19 using the…

This paper investigates the characteristics of 15-year-old girls who express an intention to study physics post-16. This paper unpacks issues around within-girl group differences and similarities between boys and girls in survey responses about physics. The analysis is based on the year 10 (age 15 years) responses of 5,034 students from 137 UK…

This article attempts a contrast to the contribution by Hugh Starkey. Rather than his account of the inexorable rise of human rights discourse, and of the implementation of human rights standards, human rights are here presented as always and necessarily scandalous and highly contested. First, I explain why the UK has lagged so far behind its…

The purpose of the present research was to study gender inequality in British and German universities. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with female academics in each country (UK, N = 40; Germany, N = 47). A generational difference of attitude was perceived in academe, with the younger generation clearly more strategic in career…

This exploratory study examines the relationships between self-esteem and psychological adjustment among 19 adolescents with Asperger syndrome and 19 typically developing adolescents using a model developed by Harter. The groups were matched for age (mean 13 years), sex (M:F 16:3) and ethnicity (white British). Participants completed four…

There is little international research focusing on parents' and teachers' roles in sexuality education during children's primary school years. This paper focuses on teachers' and parents' key experiences as sexuality educators of primary-school-age children in both Leeds, UK and in Sydney, Australia. Based on research findings from both the United…

This article reports the results of a three-year study focusing on the experiences of a sample of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people in the United Kingdom who were victimized by their peers at school. Data collected from 190 LGBs suggested that experiences of victimization at school were both long-term and systematic, and were perpetrated by…

The linguistic behavior of individuals and people in the official literature on lifelong learning (LL) was examined and interpreted in light of the theories of individualization in late modern culture and society, particularly the theories of Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens. The analysis was performed to shed light on that literature's ideological…