Points of Vulnerability and Presence: Knowing and learning in globally networked communities

This is a paper about knowledge, learning and the idea of community in what we call “hybrid workspaces”. Hybrid workspaces “bring together physical place and cyber place” in communication networks (Castells, 2001, p. 131). Many people work in various kinds of hybrid workspaces. A person working on a production line might have real-time co-workers in their own town, just as a colleague might work in a hybrid workspace and rely upon others who communicate asynchronously via a website to help them solve problems. Hybrid workspaces, like most workspaces, are centrally concerned with the global production and diffusion of certain kinds of routine and innovative working knowledge. In this paper we think about knowledge as social action that is generated, mediated, negotiated and traded among people in the politically charged dynamic of hybrid workspace communities. We consider the ways people adopt, modify and are changed by the technologies they implement in these workspaces. We are especially interested in what people have to learn to know, and to be, to operate effectively in these hybrid communities, and what role formal, informal and non-formal education has to play in negotiating what counts as knowledge, and who can say so, in virtual workspaces.     

Australian engineering educators’ attitudes towards Aboriginal cultures and perspectives

In Australia, representation of Aboriginal populations within the engineering profession is very low despite participation targets set by Government departments, professional bodies and Universities. Progressing the Aboriginal inclusion agenda within Australian Engineering Education requires a clearer understanding of engineering educators’ preparedness for increased numbers of students from this non-traditional cohort. This research stems from a recently completed project that explored Aboriginal perspectives in engineering education and proposed a model for embedding perspectives in curricula. Nine engineering academics were interviewed to explore attitudes towards Aboriginal perspectives in engineering and the viability of the proposed model. Results of the interviews indicate efforts to embed Aboriginal perspectives are starting from a small base of knowledge and experience. Individuals’ motivations and values indicate that there is significant support for improving this, but that efforts can be hampered by conceptions of Aboriginal perspectives that do not consider how Aboriginal knowledges may change engineering itself.     

A participatory action research approach to developing youth-friendly strategies for the prevention of teenage pregnancy

Teenage pregnancy among school-going youth is a concern worldwide, but in socially–economically challenged environments it is a result of, and contributory factor to, a complex web of social injustice. In South Africa, most of the school-based prevention interventions to date have been adult-designed and imparted, with the voice of the target audience – the youth – being ignored. The purpose of this participatory action research study was to involve school-going youth in the research and development of prevention interventions, tailored to meet their perceived needs. This article focuses on the first cycle where 24 high school participants interrogated their own and their peers’ narratives about teenage pregnancy so as to determine a way forward. Findings indicate that, although the youth perceive parenthood while they are still studying to have a negative impact on their future life goals, the prevention messages mediated by educators and other adults do not take into consideration the needs and lifestyle of teenagers within their specific social context. The implications of the three themes which emerged from the thematic analysis of the interviews, open-ended questionnaires and visual data are discussed to provide guidelines for the design of more youth-friendly prevention education to inform the next cycle of the research. Since teenage pregnancy is a global problem, the findings of this study have international relevance.     

Expanding Dispositions for Literacy: General Educators as Literacy Gatekeepers

Students with disabilities continue to be denied literacy rich experiences with their non-disabled peers. Throughout this article the authors explore how narrow, ability-focused teacher dispositions can perpetuate low expectations and can preemptively deny students with disabilities access to meaningful literacy experiences. Hence, the development of an inclusive literacy disposition is crucial to providing access to robust learning experiences for students with disabilities. The authors describe a research study that utilizes journal writing and a role-play intervention with pre-service general educators in a graduate literacy methods course. Analysis of post-intervention data suggests it is possible to shift narrow, ability-orientated dispositions to broader and more inclusive conceptualizations that support students with disabilities. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.     

Policy Documents: On the Wall or in the Waste Bin?

It has always been quite fashionable to have a disparaging view about school policy documents and many teachers will have had experiences of being given such documents with great flourish and then never opening them again. Yet, as Iris Keating and her colleagues point out, policy documents could be extremely helpful to teachers as guides to appropriate classroom action and ensurers of a continuity of approach. They clearly need further study as objects in their own right.     

“If You Need Help,They are Always There for us”: Education for Refugees in an International High School in NYC

This qualitative study examines how an “international” high school in New York City responds to the needs of refugee students. It asks: What are the specific academic needs of secondary-level refugee students? How does one school meet their needs, and what challenges are encountered? To complement one-on-one semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions, this qualitative study also entailed a participatory visual methodology through which students were provided digital or disposable cameras and asked to take photographs of the people, places and/or things that contributed to their schooling experiences. The exercise and resulting images provided students and researchers with a creative way to shape the project and address emerging issues. The findings document key school-based factors that contribute to academic inclusion of refugee and asylee students, including: educator support, care and encouragement; linguistic support from teachers; learner-centered pedagogical approaches; and flexible and responsive curricular approaches and assessment strategies. Refugees are generally grouped with other immigrants, with insufficient attention to their unique experiences and needs and thus inadequate services for refugee children. The findings from this study will help to remedy this gap and yield important insights regarding how to improve schooling for vulnerable populations in urban settings.

     

Spinoza,Deep Ecology and Education Informed by a (Post)human Sensibility

Abstract

This article explores the influence of Spinozism on the deep ecology movement (DEM) and on new materialism. It questions the stance of supporters of the DEM because their ecosophies unwittingly anthropomorphise the more-than-human-world. It suggests that instead of humanising the ‘natural’ world, morality should be naturalised, that is, that the object of human expression of ethics should be the more-than-human world. Moreover, the article discusses Deleuze’s Spinozism that informs new materialism and argues that stripping the human of its ontological privilege does not deprive the human animal from its ethico-normative distinctiveness. Implications of the discussion for an education aimed at cultivating (post)human sensibilities are explored.     

Stressful Effects of a University Faculty Strike on Students: Implications for Coping

This study examines university students' psychological reactions to a two-month faculty strike at a large Canadian university. Of particular interest were relationships between students' experience of angry feelings (state anger) about the strike and perceptions of the extent to which the strike had affected their plans involving important planned life experiences such as graduation, travel, and employment. The role of social support from the internet during the strike in alleviating the intensity of angry feelings was also investigated. Data were collected using an anonymous self-report questionnaire administered a few days after the labour dispute was settled. A total of 289 college students completed the questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted with variables entered as blocks and with state anger and anxiety as dependent variables. The first block of variables entered were individual variables such as age and year of study. The second block included average ratings of the extent to which plans were affected by the strike and how fairly students felt they had been treated. The third block of variables included social support from the internet and self-efficacy. The fourth block was the interaction between internet support and sex. With anger as the dependent variable, results showed that the more unfairly students felt they were treated during the strike and the more their plans had been affected by the strike, the greater their anger. Support provided to students from the internet predicted to lower anger. Further regression results indicated that the more students' plans had been affected by the strike, the greater their anxiety. Higher self-efficacy in students contributed to lower anxiety. Implications of the results are discussed within a social context, particularly the importance of studying how individual and social resources can reduce distress resulting from an interruption of students' academic plans due to a strike.