Universities,professional capabilities and contributions to the public good in South Africa

The generation of a public-good, capabilities-based approach to professional education in South African universities is outlined and proposed as a contribution to wider social transformation. The relevance and importance of understanding what Amartya Sen describes as ‘capability failure' in the lives of people living in poverty is explored and, following from this, how professionals ought to contribute by virtue of their university education, and hence privilege, to making people's lives go better. The key criterion in developing and evaluating professional education is then how professionals are educated to expand the scope of effective freedoms each person has to lead a life she has reason to value, underpinned at all times with respect for human dignity. The process by which a Professional Capabilities Index (PCI) was generated theoretically and empirically is explained and the argument advanced for the PCI as a practical tool for professional education oriented to improving public services for the poor and, hence, the public good.     

Synthetic Ethos: The Believability of Collections at the Intersection of Classification and Curation

This article explores the rhetorical notion of ethos, or a believable character, in the context both of classification schemes, or means of organizing documents, and of the resource collections that make use of those schemes. Ethos, the article contends, explains how a particular audience is more or less likely to accept the interpretive frame that classification or collection inscribes on its contents. Two case studies, one of a classification and one of a resource collection that incorporates a classification, show how these communicative artifacts can generate ethos despite their lack of typical textual mechanisms, such as linear narrative. The article concludes by suggesting that properties of collections—their synthesis of multiple, often independent parts, their continuous versioning—stretch the basic idea of ethos itself, and the notion of synthetic ethos is proposed to better encompass these properties.     

Drama, narrative and early learning

Melanie Peter is a lecturer in early childhood studies and special needs at Suffolk College, Ipswich, and a freelance consultant in arts education and inclusive/special education. Her recent research has focused on the value of pretence, particularly for children with autistic spectrum disorders. In this article, based on a paper given to the conference 'Innovation, Research and Good Practice in the Education of Pupils with Severe, Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities' at the University of London in April 2002, she presents an approach to developing drama with severely socially challenged children, underpinned by a rationale founded in the importance of early experiences of make–believe and narrative. In drama, children at early stages of learning can begin to explore and understand social narratives from the inside – a vital route to developing social competence. Melanie Peter concludes that while play–drama intervention is aimed especially at children with autistic spectrum disorders, it can also benefit a wider range of children with severe and complex learning needs and help them to participate more effectively in a social world.     

‘Tugging at our sleeves’: understanding experiences of obligation in teaching

Classrooms are complex spaces. These complexities magnify the teacher’s sense of obligation to children and the subsequent experiences of being overwhelmed, which can influence the teacher’s decision to leave the profession. Yet, we believe that a teacher’s obligation to children is inherent to morally defensible teaching. Drawn from a larger research project, we explore one teacher’s experience of obligation as a promissory relation between the teacher and the child, and consider the effect this has on the teacher’s relationships with other professionals and her disengagement from the profession. In doing so, we will illustrate the teacher’s experiences of obligation; the ways these are complicated within the matrix of relationships with professional colleagues; and the possibilities for professional disengagement to be considered an act of moral resistance.     

Hard to teach: inclusive pedagogy in social science research methods education

Amidst major new initiatives in research that are beginning to address the pedagogic dimension of building capacity in social science research methods, this paper makes the first move to apply the lens of inclusive pedagogy to research methods pedagogy. The paper explores the ways in which learning social science research methods is hard and may be anxiety-provoking, which has sometimes led to a deficit discourse in which learners are positioned as ill-prepared and fearful. Learners can then be blamed for being hard to teach when an inclusive pedagogical lens would support a more asset-based discourse. Nonetheless, the authors argue that without traditional deficit-based solutions of the remedial class, special needs label or special teacher within the methods learning environment, methods teachers have developed their own responses. These pedagogic responses, elicited from the authors’ research using methods of expert interviews, focus groups and video-stimulated dialogue, address challenges associated with the learner, the learning material and the teacher’s context. The paper differentiates between practical solution-focused strategies and more holistic approaches. The authors illustrate how methods teachers reach out to diverse learners and they conclude that data and standpoints are used in inclusive teaching to make connections and to support learning.     

Crossing the Channel: Publishing Translated German Fiction in the UK

In a review of Hans Fallada’s novel Alone in Berlin—finally translated into English after 62 years—Sam Jordison stated, “[I]t’s an important book that no English writer could have written—and so another resounding argument for the importance of taking in translations. It makes me wonder what else we’ve been missing.” Translated fiction plays a minimal role in the UK. Scholars are increasingly directing their attention towards this deficit. This paper will consider the culture of translation in the UK and Ireland, with a particular focus on translated German fiction.

     

Digitizing the Ivan Doig Archive at Montana State University: a rise to the challenge illustrates creative tension

This article contextualizes the leadership concept of creative tension by describing the acquisition, processing and digitization of the Ivan Doig Archive at the Montana State University Library. The project is framed as an illustration of strategies that can generate and sustain momentum toward achieving ambitious goals while building staff confidence. Perspectives from library staff and faculty who worked on the project are included alongside the view of the dean and an external organizational development manager.     

Associations between interpersonal behavior and friendship quality in childhood and adolescence: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis examined concurrent associations between aggression, withdrawal, assertion, and prosocial behavior and each of positive and negative friendship quality across studies with 22,657 children and adolescents (M_age = 11.71 years; 51.7% girls; 67.7% White). Studies were published between 1995 to 2021 and 32.4% were conducted outside of North America. Aggression was linked to more negative,  = .19, 95% CI [.14, .24], and less positive,  = −.05 [−.08, −.01], friendships. Withdrawal was associated with less positive friendships,  = −.13 [−.18, −.08], whereas prosocial behavior was related to more positive,  = .29 [.22, .37], as well as less negative,  = −.16 [−.20, −.12], friendships. Assertion was related to more positive friendships,  = .15 [.01, .28].