Students’ responses to theory: An FD case study

This paper will report on a small qualitative case study which explored the professional formation of students on a work-based learning course. These students were studying part-time to become professionally qualified youth workers and were already working or volunteering in the field. Drawing on interviews with students and their employers nine months after completion of the WBL course we will map some of the ways in which they consider participation has influenced their understanding of the field and their approach to their work. Contrary to expectations, our own and those in the professional literature, we found that students placed considerable value on the contribution of theory. In some cases this had led to significant changes in perspective, leading them to question their own practices and those of colleagues. While some had encountered resistance others had the autonomy to change their practices during and after the course

IMPACT OF SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS ON ATTITUDES TOWARD FOOD IRRADIATION

Irradiation of food products is one of several techniques that reduce the risk of food-borne illness. Despite its advantages, the technique has been used sparingly because consumers are wary about this technology. A logit model is used to evaluate the impacts of demographic factors on attitudes toward purchasing foods that have been irradiated and toward paying more for irradiated foods. An important finding of this study is that consumers who are familiar with irradiation are significantly more likely to buy and pay more for irradiated products than those who have never heard of irradiation. This implies that educational programs aimed at informing consumers about the benefits of irradiation can work.Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Publishers Corner Manned Space Exploration: America’s Folly

Publishers Corner: Essays If we want to assess the benefits of human space exploration, particularly to Mars, who better to consult than the good folks at MIT, a place presumably bristling with engineering knowledge and human genius. Fortuitously enough, the “Space, Policy and Society Research Group” at MIT has produced a study on “The Future of Human Space Flight” for our edification and enjoyment. It is six years old at this writing, but the facts have not altered appreciably: the humans who would have to be transported to, sustained on, and returned from the red planet are the same frail and physically limited homo sapiens they have always been; they are still carbon-based life forms, and therefore dependent on oxygen and water; and they are still as certain to deteriorate and die after relatively short periods of exposure to gamma and other radiation at strengths present in space and (especially) on the surface of Mars

Publisher\u27s Corner

Book Reviews of Kalic, Sean, N. U.S. Presidents and the Militarization of Space, 1946-1967. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2012, 182pp., $40.00. Natalie Bormann and Michael Sheehan. Securing Outer Space: International Relations Theory and the Politics of Space. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, c2009, 2012 (pbk), 272 pp.,$44.95 (pbk)

Publisher’s Corner Space Policy’s SALT Moment

The market for a leap forward in space arms control is open. Now, who’s buying? The United States is facing a fundamental decision about space policy which arises from a question: does our national interest in an ordered space environment trump our absolute insistence on a policy of freedom of action? Or is the looming threat of over-crowded orbits, frequency interference and debris – of contested, congested and competitive space – so pressing that we must accept some greater transparency for our national security space operations, even greater information sharing with China, Russia, and commercial space operators, and perhaps some limits as well on activities affecting satellites in orbit