Congenitally deaf children's care trajectories in the context of universal neonatal hearing screening: a qualitative study of the parental experiences

The objective of this study is to examine the early care trajectories of congenitally deaf children from a parental perspective, starting with universal neonatal hearing screenings. The analysis using a three-dimensional care trajectory concept is aimed at developing a basic typology of postscreening care trajectories. Children with severe/profound hearing loss, registered in the Flanders' (Belgium) universal neonatal hearing screening program, born between 1999 and 2001. Thematic content analysis of qualitative data collected retrospectively from participant's parents. Two basic types of care trajectories emerged; based on differences in care-use in the phase of further diagnosis and related parental experiences. Subtypes resulted from events related to cochlear implantation. Five trajectory phases were identified: screening, further diagnosis, care and technology, cochlear implantation, and reduction of care and were characterized by specific parental experiences such as confusion, disbelief, disappointment, and uncertainty. Those experiences relate to care professionals' acts and communication and the child's functional evolution. Early care interventions could benefit from coordinated transition between phases, parent support throughout the care trajectory, and a broad approach to deafness in professionals' communication.     

Shifting the focus to people: Global societal priorities and the contribution made by conservation science

During the ICCROM Forum on Conservation Science in 2013, one of the main themes discussed was the ability for conservation science to contribute to global societal priorities. Today's world is in many ways globalized. Human actions have an impact at local as well as global level. Information travels fast, more or less in real time. To set up a framework for international interactions and cooperation, the majority of the recognized nations have joined the United Nations and signed the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Global societal priorities are various and wide-ranging. This paper deals primarily with those that are referred to under the UN Millennium Development Goals and the term Sustainable Development. The first aims to fight extreme poverty, raise education levels, achieve gender equality, combat diseases, etc. The second deals with the interconnecting systems of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. A core aspect in the discussion is that culture and cultural heritage is integrated in all human activities, yet is diverse because culture holds various values, meanings, and functions for different groups in society. Cultural heritage is a powerful tool to reach and interact with people. It can be used for good and for ill. For conservation science as a discipline to take its professional responsibility seriously, it should contribute to the multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary environment of conservation, and enhance its benefits for society. Through advanced research it can provide historical perspectives and raise awareness of traditional methods, transforming it into ‘easily accessible’ knowledge. It can also contribute by providing facts and information that can open up different narratives based on the same cultural historical realia. Examples of how that can be done are given under the headings: social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Finally, addressing the global conservation community, the following three areas are recommended for future development: the need for process managers and facilitators; the need for active participation in the global sustainability challenges, and the need for inspirational role models and case studies.     

What do upper secondary school teachers want to know from research on the use of ICT and how does this inform a research design?

This study investigates what teachers taking part in a longitudinal research project on the use of ICT for teaching and learning in three upper secondary schools in Sweden want to learn more about. At the beginning of the project eighty-four teachers were invited to respond to a questionnaire relating to what teachers wanted to learn more about during their participation in a research project, both for themselves, their colleagues and their students. The questionnaire consisted of Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Sixty teachers responded, thereby yielding a response rate of 71%. In focus in this paper is a qualitative content analysis of the open-ended questions. The analysis revealed six desired areas of learning: (a) technological aspects, (b) how to use ICT for teaching and learning, (c) the Learning Management System (LMS), (d) safety and plagiarism, (e) best practice and (f) collaboration and professional development. The aspects of knowledge addressed in these themes were analysed and discussed in relation to the TPACK model. A conclusion that can be drawn from the analysis is that the teachers inquired different forms of knowledge and that interpretation of ‘technological pedagogical content knowledge’ only emerged in one of the themes. This study then informed the research design in multiple ways, the two most apparent being a survey of students acknowledging teachers’ expressed research interests and the design and implementation of a formative intervention group interview.     

Vocational Education and Training: Researching the Relationship between School and Work

Researchers and policy makers agree that the relation between school and work is an important characteristic of vocational education and training (VET) and needs attention. The relation itself poses several challenges for research to be successful and useful for policy makers. In this article, we outline these challenges and answer the following question: What needs to be considered when researching the relation between school and work? Our central claim is that research on the relation between school and work needs to (1) take into account contextual conditions of the VET system, including identifying the central actors and their responsibilities within a VET system, (2) take into account the characteristics of VET itself, (3) define the quality of the relation between school and work (depending on the context, characteristics of the VET system and VET itself), and (4) be consistent with respect to chosen research aims and paradigms. To illustrate how these aspects can be taken into account an example of empirical research conducted in the German dual apprenticeship system is described. The readers are provided with guidelines for researchers and policy makers to carry out high quality research on the relation between school and work in VET systems that enables policy makers to make use of the results to improve the relation between school and work in VET systems.     

Educational trust: relational and structural perspectives on young people on the margins of the education system

Background: Across Europe and the Nordic countries, it is widely agreed that the high proportion of 15–30-year olds not in employment, education or training is a challenge, which needs to be tackled by focusing on education. The political and institutional focus is on individual training readiness, individual qualification processes, individual building of confidence in oneself and so forth, culminating in an overall individual perspective.

Purpose: The study argues for a shift in focus away from an individual perspective on young people on the margins of education and towards a relational perspective that takes the social environment and the education system into account.

Sample: Respondents were 20 young people aged 17–24 who were participating in a specific project in a provincial town in Denmark, the aim of which was to encourage the youths to re-enter education.

Design and methods: Qualitative data were collected through: (1) 40 semi-structured qualitative interviews with 11 young people on the margins of the education system, and (2) observations of 11 respondents’ participation in educational activity. The analysis was based on relational and social constructionist theories.

Findings: The analysis of data from this small-scale study provides evidence to suggest that a shift in the current focus on the individual young person on the margins of education is needed. The concept of ‘educational trust’ is introduced as a supplement to the individual concept of self-confidence in order to capture the socially constructed aspects of the young adult’s participation in education.

Conclusions: We identify three overall components of educational trust: (1) social security and recognition, (2) flexibility in structures and (3) progression in skills. The concept of educational trust, it is suggested, creates a shift in focus from the individual young person to the role and function of the education system in aiming to reach the target of more young people completing education.     

Musical make-believe playing: three preschoolers collaboratively initiating play ‘in-between’

This study presents an analysis of a video observation of three six-year-olds interacting in front of a synthesizer in a Swedish preschool and using a new music technology (MIROR-Impro). It investigates how a musical role-play unfolds as an intermediate activity when there is a malfunction with the set-up of the technology and how it recommences when the technology is again functioning. The study is informed by a sociocultural perspective on playing and learning and analyses how the children communicate and negotiate in and about this activity. The analysis shows how they make use of this gap to develop mutual make-believe play and how they actualize and use some of their out-of-school experiences. How the children establish coordination into a joint activity and scaffold each other’s musical performance is also shown. The study relates to children’s music experiences in contemporary childhood and how early childhood music education can respond to these.     

Working-class girls in a foreign land. Social class and settling into university in a cross-current between two cultures

In Finland, the financial status of a family does not in general place any restrictions on a person's studies. However, in spite of equality of opportunity, class as a cultural and social issue is a significant factor guiding the education of young people. In the article, I analyse women with a working-class background studying at university, starting with experiences of class as it is lived. The data for the study have been generated using the memory work method. The analysis shows how class is manifested in the women's experiences as a sense of themselves as outsiders, being alone or ‘on their own’ and as feelings of inadequacy. The women are forced to find ways of doing things that suit them and to construct a space in which they can feel safe.     

Quality assurance and its impact from higher education institutions’ perspectives: methodological approaches,experiences and expectations

This paper reports on methodological approaches, experiences and expectations referring to impact analysis of quality assurance from the perspective of three higher education institutions (students, teaching staff, quality managers) from Germany, Finland and Romania. The presentations of the three sample institutions focus on discussing the core characteristics of quality assurance procedures applied and their expected and observed impacts, and how intended and non-intended undesirable ones are measured. It turns out that all sample institutions have already some instruments and sub-procedures in place for impact analysis of quality assurance and all of them are striving for further improvement by applying internal and external quality assurance procedures and impact analyses. Finally, a closer look at the recently revised Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area shows that the European sample institutions are on their way towards coherent quality assurance policies, while there is also room left for further improvement and investigation (for example, in implementing systematic methodologies of impact evaluation and quality policies in general).