Positive Perspectives on the Profession: Reframing through Appreciative Inquiry

Change theories and Organization Development strategies have long followed the problem-solving approach of looking at organizations, identifying the weaknesses and introducing interventions to “stop doing the wrong things.” In its simplest form, this approach has been successful in a variety of situations and has a popular following. Consultants or internal reviewers look for the problems, identify the cause of the problem, and introduce the intervention (new rule) to eliminate the opportunity for the repetition of the “problem.” Problem-solving is a popular perspective through which change is initiated in politics, academia, and in social media. Eliminate the “bad” and pay attention to what we have been doing wrong to improve. This article first reviews the problems posed in past Hanna lectures to some major themes: (a) the need to address societal concerns, (b) the need to reduce sub-disciplinary fragmentation, (c) the problems inherent on university campuses as a result of politics and the economy, (d) the need to re-examine the over-reliance on the scientific research paradigm at the cost of phenomenological understandings, and (e) the framing of problems to be solved by professionals in our field. The introduction of Appreciative Inquiry and is then provided as an alternative approach to examine current contextual setting with the primary emphasis away from “What problems are you having?” and toward “What is working around here?”. This alternative suggests that in all organizations there is some positive force that is moving the organization forward, and the identification of that force (what works) can lay the ground work for doing more of “what works.” Finally, three examples of Appreciative Inquiry opportunities in action from our discipline are offered for consideration.     

Sexuality education: findings and recommendations from an analysis of 10 United States programmes

In this study, we identified 10 sexuality education programmes from different locations in the USA that aim to give young people knowledge and skills to develop healthy relationships, as well as avoid pregnancy and disease. We conducted in-depth interviews with programme administrators to develop a series of case studies and provide concrete recommendations for education and public health professionals to implement similar approaches in their communities. Many programme administrators succeeded in developing partnerships, adapting existing curricula to suit their environments, engaging external evaluators and garnering support from teachers and parents. However, few programme developers conducted formal needs assessments before developing programmes and many struggled to implement curricula with fidelity and to employ rigorous evaluation designs. Nearly all participants identified concerns over funding as a threat to sustainability. We conclude that schools and organisations need technical assistance to build capacity for rigorous programme planning, implementation and evaluation, as well as additional funding streams to support emerging programmes.     

The didactics tradition in South Africa: a reply to Richard Krüger

There has been a growing interest in the European Didaktik tradition as part of a process of ‘internationalizing’ curriculum studies. Krüger provides useful insights into some aspects of Didaktiek in South Africa. However, the essay does not contextualize this tradition within the broader history of South African education. This reply contends that Didaktiek was interwoven with ‘fundamental pedagogics’ and as a consequence played a role in reproducing apartheid ideology—it did not provide a language of critique or possibility. This is one reason why the tradition has seen its demise in post‐apartheid South Africa. I argue that curriculum theory, which crucially deals with the relationship between schooling and society and highlights the socially constructed nature of schooling, offers a more useful alternative for critiquing apartheid education policy and for charting a process of transformation of education in South Africa.     

A New Approach to Comparing Several Equating Methods in the Context of the NEAT Design

The nonequivalent groups with anchor test (NEAT) design involves missing data that are missing by design. Three equating methods that can be used with a NEAT design are the frequency estimation equipercentile equating method, the chain equipercentile equating method, and the item-response-theory observed-score-equating method. We suggest an approach to perform a fair comparison of the three methods. The approach is then applied to compare the three equating methods using three data sets from operational tests. For each data set, we examine how the three equating methods perform when the missing data satisfy the assumptions made by only one of these equating methods. The chain equipercentile equating method is somewhat more satisfactory overall than the other methods.     

Promoting inner stillness: the value of a self-discovery programme for children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties

Dr Lesley Cullen-Powell and Professor Julie Barlow are both chartered health psychologists and both work at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Health at Coventry University where Lesley Cullen-Powell is a research fellow and Julie Barlow is a director. In this article, they assess the benefits of a 'self-discovery programme' for children aged six to seven years attending one mainstream primary school. Staff at the school selected 18 pupils, many of them considered to be at risk of exclusion, to participate in the study. The children were allocated either to an 'intervention' or 'non-intervention' group. The children in the intervention group experienced the self-discovery programme over two terms.
Results suggest that the programme was well received by the children. They became more confident, respectful and calm and they displayed less aggressive behaviours during the self-discovery programme. Lesley Cullen-Powell and Julie Barlow are cautious in the interpretation of their findings, but suggest that the self-discovery programme has the potential to help children to feel more positive about themselves and their peers and to re-engage with learning. The authors argue that a wider implementation of the programme, with a controlled study, is now required to evaluate the self-discovery programme in more depth and detail.     

Crossing cultures: Analysing the experiences of NZ returnees from the EU (UK vs. non-UK)

While there is growing scholarly interest in returned and cyclical migration, and on young adult cultural or adventure seeking migration, there is still a lack of systematic empirical insights into how the experiences of being abroad, and after return, are mediated by exposure to different cultural environments. Addressing this conceptual and empirical gap, the paper analyses the experiences of New Zealand return migrants, or sojourners, who lived and worked in European countries (other than the UK) for more than one year and compares them with the experiences of NZ returnees from the UK. Drawing on 20 ‘non-UK’ and 22 ‘UK’ in-depth interviews, the paper revisits [Rhinesmith, 1975] and [Rhinesmith, 1986] typology of cross-cultural, or intercultural, adjustment (largely ignored in studies of return migration) to assess sojourners’ experiences throughout the migration cycle and serve as a useful tool for identifying and reporting psychological and socio-cultural elements in the returnees stories. The findings of sojourners’ possible identity shifts during intercultural transition are discussed with reference to the four-member paradigm of Cultural Identity Model (CIM) (Sussman, 2010) while addressing Sussman's (2002) argument that overseas adaptation and repatriation experiences are not directly associated. This paper demonstrates the need to understand first that the costs and benefits of circular migration or sojourning are country-specific, and that they do not ‘just happen’ at a particular moment or in one phase but are forged through a veritable rollercoaster of experiences of intercultural adjustment.     

Implications of Shifting Technology in Education

This article examines the implications of shifting technology trends by looking at what we’ve lost or are losing, where we are, and where we need to go for making the needed transitions in knowledge and skills. Areas of growth within new media and the tech industry are good indicators of our growing interests in mobility, improved quality, and personalization, all happening within our increasingly global community. With the tremendous technological shifts, we need to consider the potential gaps or missing bits of knowledge slipping through the cracks. Then, determine where we need to go while forging ahead to provide the meaningful integration of new technologies through the selection of quality tools aligning to current best research based instructional practices to foster powerful, meaningful, engaged learning opportunities.