Classroom Provocateurs and Ethical Classroom Practice

This article is based upon a larger study that considered three high school literature units in the US. Through a close analysis of one classroom discussion between a teacher and a provocative 8th grade student named Fish, I argue that it is not only ethically responsible to position the Fishes of this world as laudable, but that doing so is beneficial for critically focused English classes as a whole. Further, I argue that my reading of Fish as a provocateur can be productively transferred to other student‐provocateurs in our English classrooms who vex the smooth doing‐of‐school in different ways than Fish did.     

Challenges and possibilities in climate change education

Educating and communicating about climate change is challenging. Researchers reported that climate change concepts are often misunderstood. Some people do not believe that climate change will have impacts on their own life. Other challenges may include people＇s difficulty in perceiving small or gradual environmental changes, the fact that overconsumption brings people power and recognition, people＇s weak connection to nature, and people＇s tendency to make emotional decisions and quickly solve environmental problems. Drawn from research, some climate change communication and education strategies are presented. Well designed environmental messages could convince people that they can still reduce the scale of the phenomenon and could link mitigation actions to people＇s positive desires or aspirations, while providing local examples of climate change impacts and illustrated information. In mitigation education, some strategies （future education, reflective, experiential, socio-constructivist approaches and the community of change）, jointly used, could correct the learners＇ misconceptions and lead them to action. In adaptation education, scientists and citizens could get together to choose a specific problem that may worsen with climate change, analyze it, and propose and implement adaptations. In the meantime, pedagogical strategies inspired by cognitive science could strengthen the citizens＇ skills： posing and solving problems, decision-making, scenario building and sustainable planning.     

A Developmental Neuroscience Study of Moral Decision Making Regarding Resource Allocation

Distinguishing between equity and equality is essential when making social and moral decisions, yet the related neurodevelopmental processes are unknown. Evaluations of contextually based third‐party distributions incorporating recipient need and resource importance were examined in children and adolescents (N = 82; 8–16 years). Spatiotemporal neurodynamic responses show distinct developmental profiles to viewing such distributions. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) differentially predicted real‐life behaviors based on age, where older children's (8–10 years) evaluations were related to a fairly rapid, automatic ERP component (early posterior negativity), whereas adolescent and preadolescent (11–16 years) evaluations, first‐person allocations, and prosocial behaviors were predicted by later, cognitively controlled ERP components (P3 and late positive potential). Together, these results reveal age‐related changes regarding the neural responses that correspond to distributive justice decisions.     

The Lived Experiences of Men in a Master's Counseling Program

Using phenomenological methodology, the authors explored the experiences of 11 men in a master's‐level counseling program. Participants described the challenges and advantages of being a minority in number, being in a relational environment, and having an awareness of a patriarchal system. These findings suggest the importance of counselor educator awareness of the unique barriers male students face.     

Dimensions of higher education and the public good in South Africa

The focus is on the micro-possibilities of student capabilities formation as the end of public-good higher education, rather than on a systems or organizations approach more commonly found in discussions of the public good and higher education. This does not discount other valuable public-good ends. Using South Africa as a global South context, a capability-based approach to the public good of higher education is proposed for its humanizing ethic, attention to fair opportunities, and participation in terms of what students are able to do and to be in and through higher education. A capability frame is complemented by thinking about decoloniality and epistemic justice to help identify central higher education capabilities. The three proposed intersecting capability dimensions are as follows: personhood self-formation, epistemic contribution, and sufficiency of economic resources, intended to guide university practices and policy interventions in the direction of the public good. By populating the space of the public good with capabilities, a shift is made away from micro-economics which see the public good as a reductionist space of commodities and human capital development. Higher education is rather understood as having both instrumental and intrinsic value, generating an alternative logic to that of neo-liberalism, and an individualist ontology of competition and untrammeled markets. The pressures of the global context are acknowledged so that the public good is understood as both “ideal-aspirational” but also “practical-feasible” in the light of local South African conditions. An expanded capability-based framing would contribute to reducing higher education inequalities as a public-good and public-accountable contribution by universities.     

Equity-based sustainability and ecocentric management: Creating more ecologically just sport organization practices

Recognizing the shared responsibility all entities with a vested interest in keeping the Earth habitable possess, the authors propose ways in which sport organizations can take action by incorporating ecocentric management principles within their organizational practices and thus become more ecologically just. First, by drawing upon the tenets of the systems thinking paradigm and the four levels of thinking model, the underlying beliefs and values guiding current practices within sport organizations are identified. Next, the authors offer a series of propositions to suggest that by adopting an equity-based perspective, recognizing the interdependent relationships between humans and the natural environment, and acknowledging the manner in which sport organizations hinder the opportunities of the natural environment to thrive, sport organizations can contribute to the health of the planet and all of its inhabitants through their own organizational practices. Additionally, sport organizations can also serve as ecologically just exemplars for organizations in other industries to emulate.     

Knowledge management tools for instructional design

Advances in computer technology typically find their way into education after a short generation of success in other settings. This is an elaboration of one such technology—knowledge management systems (KMS)—and its application to instructional design. An examination of the development of KMS from information systems. computer-supported collaborative work environments and object-oriented systems, leads to a discussion of reusability. The focus is on the use of KMS by instructional designers. A conceptual framework for distributed instructional design is provided along with examples of support tools. These tools and the associated design framework are in use, and anecdotal evidence of effects and impact is provided. As such tools become more widely used to support the planning, implementation and management of instructional systems and learning environments, it is reasonable to expect the nature of instructional design practice to change.