On adventure therapy and the natural worlds: Respecting nature's healing

Abstract

This paper sets out to discover if the history of outdoor education, within the UK and more particularly Scotland, provides its modern exponents with a legacy of prescribed conservatism or alternatively a form of education which embraces, or is capable of embracing, diversity of theory and practice. It begins in the post World War II period entitled “out of the ashes” and charts the history decade by decade.

Secondary sources are used and include statutory instruments as well as the body of literature that relates to outdoor education. The paper has succeeded in adding to the literature through uncovering rarely used sources. Secondary sources have been supplemented by primary data in the form of interviews. The interviews were used to provide detail and fill gaps where secondary sources were lacking.

The time between the post-war period until the end of the 1960s charts the growth of outdoor education provision. This growth is characterised by diversity where common themes such as “fitness for war”, “character building” “social education” “recuperative holiday for socially disadvantaged young people” and “progressive education” emerge as competing and contrasting claims. Consequently it can be stated that outdoor education defies definition in terms of being a fixed entity of common consent, homogeneous over time and space.     

The Malvinas War: experiencing and remembering the conflict in Argentine schools

ABSTRACT

In this article we offer a broad historical overview of how the “Malvinas cause” has been taught in Argentine schools over the years. It is divided into four parts: first, we focus on the period prior to the 1982 armed conflict in order to analyse how the issue had traditionally been conceptualised and thus, offer a reflection on the pre-existing ideological “terrain” which permeated the discursive reception of the war in schools. Second, we analyse how the war was experienced in the classroom through the analysis of correspondence between ministerial authorities and the schools, as well as through the analysis of oral testimonies by teachers and pupils. Third, we focus on what is called the process of “demalvinization” during the first decades of the return to democracy and the impact of this process on educational policies. Finally, we analyse the policies adopted by the Argentine Ministry of Education in the transmission of the Malvinas cause as an integral element within a contemporary politics of memory in the context of the 30th anniversary of the 1976 military coup; in particular, we focus on the place assigned to the 1982 Malvinas War in the educational resources produced at the time.     

War,education and state formation: problems of territorial and political integration in the United States, 1848–1912

Abstract

After the Civil War (1861–1865), the United States faced a problem of “reconstruction” similar to that confronted by other nations at the time and familiar to the US since at least the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). The problem was one of territorial and political (re)integration: how to take territories that had only recently been operating under “foreign” governance and integrate them into an expanded nation-state on common structural terms. This paper considers the significance of education in that process of state (re)formation after the Civil War, with particular attention to its role in federal territories of the US West. Specifically, this paper analyses the role that education-based restrictions on citizenship, voting rights and office-holding played in constructing formal state power in the cases of five western territories: Hawaii, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico. A focus on the significance of education in these cases both advances and challenges literature on the “hidden” and decentralised structure of national policy-making in the US. It adds to that literature by illuminating how education served as an indirect tool of national policy in the West, effectively shaping the structure of power in other policy domains. At the same time, by focusing on the US West, the present analysis challenges the idea that national governance in the US was particularly “decentralised” or “hidden”. It highlights instead: (1) the role of colonial racialism in shaping national responsibility and authority for education in the US; and (2) the significance of education as both an alternative and a corollary to war in establishing US colonial power.     

Four Perspectives on Flipping the Statistics Classroom: Changing Pedagogy to Enhance Student-Centered Learning

Abstract

The term “flipped” or “inverted” classroom includes a broad range of pedagogical innovations, and has recently received a significant amount of press. Although flipping an entire course might be a more extreme step than most are able to take, we discuss modular ideas for change that can be more easily implemented. This paper offers the perspective of four faculty members at different institutions who have all flipped material in statistics courses that were already highly interactive and activity-based. We share common pitfalls and core ideas that were found among diverse environments.     

Assessing a State-Mandated Institutional Accountability Program: The Perceptions of Selected Community College Leaders

ABSTRACT

In the spring of 2002 we conducted a structure-focused case study at 4 North Carolina community colleges to understand how selected senior campus leaders assessed a new legislatively-mandated institutional-accountability program. Using confidential interviews and document analysis we collected, analyzed, and interpreted data that revealed clear differences in how leaders regarded the accountability program. These distinct, campus-specific perspectives are characterized as “bureaucratic meddling,” “benign intrusion,” “an opportunity to demonstrate accountability,” and “the divided leaders.” Despite these distinct perspectives, however, we also found 2 overarching themes that illuminated common reactions to the accountability program. First, leaders at 3 of the 4 institutions reported that performance ratings under the accountability program were instrumental in prompting changes in instructional programs or staffing. Second, faculty leaders at 3 institutions exhibited an apathy or unawareness of state indicators, even though some state funding was linked to measures regarding student performance.     

Parenting and discipline in post-conflict Sierra Leone

BackgroundWhile the literature on physical punishment concludes that it has negative effects on children, the practice remains common in many countries. In post-conflict countries with nongovernmental organizations (NGO) operating in child protection, traditional disciplinary practices may conflict with international child rights agendas. The country of Sierra Leone has a unique history of conflict, abject poverty, low literacy, and weak governance – often, NGO agents are responsible for providing social services that the government is unable to consistently provide.ObjectiveWe examined how Sierra Leonean caregivers think about appropriate discipline for children, and whether they perceived any changes in their attitudes toward disciplinary practices since the end of the war.Participants and SettingWe collected data from parents and caregivers in urban, peri-urban, and rural areas of Sierra Leone’s four districts.MethodsWe used focus groups (12 groups, n = 92) and individual interviews (n = 21) to collect data in 2013. Focus groups and interviews were conducted by research assistants fluent in Krio and English. We used a thematic content analysis approach.ResultsWe found that physical discipline—“beating”—was widely acceptable and common. A few parents mentioned other means of discipline, such as withholding food. Parents widely agreed that parenting had changed since the war, and reported that child rights movements supported by NGOs had made it more difficult to discipline their children in traditional ways.ConclusionsDiscipline was seen a central component of child-rearing and a means of ensuring safe and proper development. This may be a protective mechanism in the precarious, high poverty environment of post-war Sierra Leone. The negative responses of parents to NGO efforts to reduce physical punishment and other forms of child abuse suggest that grassroots approaches are needed to address this pervasive problem.     

The quotidianisation of the war in everyday life at German schools during the First World War

Abstract

The outbreak of the First World War had a powerful impact on German schools. Undoubtedly, schools were institutions of socialisation that did offer support to the war. Indeed, research has shown that a specific “war pedagogy” made an aggressive propaganda possible in the classroom. This research usually emphasises the enthusiasm for war that swept up teachers and students in schools, as in the rest of the population, in the first few months of the war. However, this emphasis on the war frenzy obscures the fact that schools were not easily transformed into war institutions. Even if schools made a great effort to align themselves with the war effort, they remained independent associations, and soon after 1914, a quotidianisation (akin to routinisation) arose within the schools. To date, source materials that show this lack of influence of wartime propaganda on schools have only been analysed in terms of what they reveal about the deprivations and hardships of schools during the war. However, records from the schools also shed light on the everyday routines that continued during the war, and such evidence calls on scholars to reconsider the conditions in schools in the First World War. This article analyses selected records including school chronicles and exam protocols from the war years and shows that school life was often distinct from war enthusiasm. A more complex view is therefore advocated of the relationship between the First World War and the German school.     

Differential social and political influences on girls and boys through education out of doors in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The way the outdoors was used for educational purposes was determined by the need for young men to be made fit for war and service in the British Empire, the need to improve the physical health of children from industrial conurbations and the preoccupation of those in authority with the notion of adolescence as a problem, especially the anticipated fear of juvenile delinquency. In the 1950s and early 1960s, when there was a significant increase in the use of the outdoors in education, much of the provision reflected the earlier emphasis on character training and “manly” virtues. The suggestion is made that this was due, in part at least, to the role played by a number of charismatic and influential figures and to continued sensitivity to social, political and military factors.     

A Visit to “The Clearing” and “Warrior Falls”: In Search of Brave and Beyond Spaces for Religious Education

Abstract

This article seeks to address the question: “How can religious educators learn from those who have been marginalized and whose voices are not usually heard because of the hegemony of whiteness?” My primary sources are scenes from the work of two U.S. black creatives. Specifically, I examine the “Clearing” scene in Toni Morrison’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize–winning fiction novel Beloved and the “Warrior Falls” scenes in Black Panther, a 2018 film co-written and directed by Ryan Coogler. I draw attention to their common themes and their implications for approaches to religious education that can de-center white normativity.     

War and children in Finland during the Second World War

This article focuses on Finnish children during the Second World War, looking at children from two different points of view. First, it provides information on around 70,000 children who were transferred to Sweden and Denmark; so‐called “war children”. Second, it discusses the results of a survey of Finns born between 1927 and 1938 who stayed in Finland during the war years.

The majority of “war children” lived in private homes and many of them forgot their Finnish roots; around 15,000 emigrated permanently. Many of these transferred children do not feel at home in either country. Their educational level is lower than the average Finn’s, but their health is better owing to good medical care and nutrition during the war. The Finns who spent their childhood in Finland during the war suffered from hunger. Those in the countryside had better lives than those in cities or evacuees from the war zone. The children’s nightmares faded away with time and only a minority still see tanks and bombings in their dreams.

Compared with those from other European countries, Finnish children lived well and avoided seeing the horrors of war. However, they had to work and assist non‐governmental organisations more than did English children.     

Associations between childhood maltreatment latent classes and eating disorder symptoms in a nationally representative sample of young adults in the United States

BackgroundChildhood maltreatment is associated with eating disorders, but types of childhood maltreatment often co-occur.ObjectiveTo examine associations between childhood maltreatment patterns and eating disorder symptoms in young adulthood.Participants and SettingData came from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 14,322).MethodsLatent class analysis was conducted, using childhood physical neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse as model indicators. Logistic regression models adjusted for demographic covariates were conducted to examine associations between childhood maltreatment latent classes and eating disorder symptoms.ResultsIn this nationally representative sample of U.S. young adults (mean age = 21.82 years), 7.3% of participants reported binge eating-related concerns, 3.8% reported compensatory behaviors, and 8.6% reported fasting/skipping meals. Five childhood maltreatment latent classes emerged: “no/low maltreatment” (78.5% of the sample), “physical abuse only” (11.0% of the sample), “multi-type maltreatment” (7.8% of the sample), “physical neglect only” (2.1% of the sample), and “sexual abuse only” (0.6% of the sample). Compared to participants assigned to the “no/low maltreatment” class, participants assigned to the “multi-type maltreatment” class were more likely to report binge eating-related concerns (odds ratio = 1.97; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.52, 2.56) and fasting/skipping meals (OR = 1.85; 95% CI: 1.46, 2.34), and participants assigned to the “physical abuse only” class were more likely to report fasting/skipping meals (OR = 1.35; 95% CI: 1.04, 1.76).ConclusionsThis study provides evidence that distinct childhood maltreatment profiles are differentially associated with eating disorder symptoms. Individuals exposed to multi-type childhood maltreatment may be at particularly high risk for eating disorders.     

舍“仁”取“利”——孙子战争法思想中的价值冲突与协调

在先秦时期的战争法思想中,"仁"与"利"是一对时常冲突的价值要素。孙子是在战争之内平衡和解决"仁""利"之争的第一人。他继承了早期战争以"军礼"为指导和制约战争活动的"仁"的价值内核,又在充分尊重其自身所处时代的趋利化战争现实的基础上,宣扬"兵,利也,非好也"的功利战争思想。孙子提出的具体作战规则对"仁""利"冲突进行协调,当二者不可兼得时,他则义无反顾地选择舍"仁"取"利"。     

The Empire of outrage: Topical systems at the death of Cecil the lion

ABSTRACT

This article employs the topographical metaphors of terrain and territory to examine how, upon the 2015 death of Cecil the lion at the hands of the dentist Walter Palmer, outrage was channeled into and captured by digital topoi. Digital rhetoric is organized into a topical system that is topographical, composed of not just “places” but “levels” that organize and orient rhetorical expressions into particular topoi. Users “navigate” and “move” through the channels of the digital topical system, and in the process arrive at or pass by topoi. I further argue that the digital topical system is composed of the terrain of digital spaces and the territory of global capitalism. The terrain of digital spaces shapes digital rhetoric through material affordances, cultural conventions, and the power of institutional logics. Digital rhetoric is further shaped by the macro-level territorial accretions of political and economic power in Empire. By mapping the topoi present in the case of Cecil the lion’s death, I show how scholars can better understand and articulate the ways that power ossifies into a digital topical system that shapes contemporary discourses.     

Ideology and Morality in Host Language Learning: American Protestants in the Former Yugoslavia

ABSTRACT

American Protestants serving overseas must learn their host communities’ “heart” language from the twin moral imperative to minimize their burden on host partners and to embody their faith through their language practice. Language learning thus has moral consequences; not merely proficiency attainment, but faithfulness and calling are at stake. The author, a Protestant himself, conducted an ethnography of Americans serving in a Protestant organization at field sites in Bosnia and Slovenia. Two ideologies emerged from this study and were analyzed as a polycentric system exerting moral authority. These were (a) a dogmatic ideology of using the “right” language, the “national” or “heart language” corresponding to a people group, and (b) a pragmatic ideology of using “whatever” linguistic resources available to convey their gospel. These ideologies overlapped and shifted over time, with consequences for fieldworkers’ longevity, the linguistic ecology of host communities, and Christian understandings of language learning.     

Inverting the Transition-to-Proof Classroom

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the benefits of employing an inverted or “flipped” class design in a Transition-to-Proof course for second-year mathematics majors. The issues concomitant with such courses, particularly student acquisition of “sociomathematical norms” and self-regulated learning strategies, are discussed along with ways that the inverted classroom can address these issues. Finally, results from the redesign of a Transition-to-Poof class at the author’s university are given and discussed.     

New Approaches to the Study of Interpretation in Reading

Abstract

The Median Test was employed to test null hypotheses relevant to the perception of the college experience and variables related to academic motivation. Statistically significant differences were found for academic motivation variables, i.e., direction of aspirations, influence of precollege peer group, influence of the home, independence In planning, persistence, and self-control in terms of the type of “philosophy” of education endorsed by a random sample of 280 entering freshmen at a private midwestern university. The dominant perceptions, or “philosophies” endorsed were the “academic”, the “vocational”, or the “collegiate”. In general, on those academic motivation variables where statistically significant differences were obtained, the “collegiate” were lower while the “academics” were higher. The “vocational” tended not to depart from the grand population median value. Implications for student personnel workers in higher education are indicated and suggestions for further study are made.     

“Ourselves among others”: A new metaphor for business and technical writing

Business and technical writing grows out of a need to “build bridges” between ourselves and others. With today's diversifying readerships and increasingly global marketplace, business and industry face a new challenge that is reshaping our conception of business/technical writing and the metaphors of the genre. The metaphors of “selling” and “reader‐centeredness” demand especially to be recast and subordinated to a new metaphor of interculturalism/ internationalism—"ourselves among others.” Grounded in a social theory of language and communication, this new metaphor signifies that “bridge‐building” across differences will be the key in contexts becoming at once more heterogeneous and global.     

A Comparison of Students' Predictions of Rank Order on Proximate and Remote Tasks

Abstract

Students’ expectations of relative academic achievement tend to decline over time. “High” and “low” ranking students alike tend to make lower predictions of final class standing at mid-course than at the beginning In the absence of feed-back supporting other conclusions. Moreover, In predicting relative achievement in successive competitive tasks, “high” and “low” students alike tend to predict much lower ranking on the proximate task than the remote task. This phenomenon has Implications for the allocation of counseling efforts to adjust students' expectations to their realistic academic prospects.

It has also been found that graduate students’ predictions of final letter-grades can be quite ambiguous with respect to their expectations of final class rank.     

Incidence,type and intensity of abuse in street children in India

ObjectiveThe aims of this cross-sectional survey were to examine the prevalence, type and intensity of abuse in street children in Jaipur city, India.MethodBased on purposive random sampling, 200 street children, inclusive of equal number of boys and girls, were selected from the streets of Jaipur city, India, and administered an in-depth interview schedule which included five areas of abuse, namely, “general abuse,” “health abuse,” “verbal abuse,” “physical abuse,” and “psychological abuse.” Data was interpreted using percentages, t-test and correlations.ResultsStreet children reported experiences of abuse in all the five areas under study. Larger numbers of children (61.8%) scored in the “moderate” category of abuse while 36.6% children indicated abuse in “severe” and “very severe” categories on the intensity of abuse. Highest mean scores were obtained on the “verbal” and “psychological” area of abuse. Gender differences were significant in health and overall abuse, indicating boys to be significantly more abused than girls. There were significant positive correlations of abuse with increasing “age” and “income” of street children; and the occurrence of “multi-type” maltreatment and neglect in street children was clearly present.ConclusionDifferent forms of abuse are prevalent in street children in India. This area of study needs attention both by the researchers and the social workers.Practice implicationschildren who are identified in severe and very severe categories of abuse should be worked with in a follow up study with the help of governmental and nongovernmental agencies working in the field for child welfare.     

Challenger and the social contingency of meaning: Two lessons for the technical communication classroom

In my technical writing class, I examine two “meanings” from the Challenger disaster to illustrate the social contingency of meaning even in science and technology. These instances are the “anomalous” charring of the O‐rings and the reconceptualized assumption of flightworthiness the night before the launch. The social contingency of these meanings shows that the “object” of technical communication is not the material object as a pre‐existent isolate but in its social interpretation, significance, and meaning. Ultimately, technical communication is about people communicating about and to the interests of other people.