Unpacking FIFA play as text and action in literacy practices in and out of school

ABSTRACT

In this article, we use a model for games and literacy to explore how one FIFA gamer worked across contexts. Previously, this model has been used to address the role of computer and video games in the teaching of literacy in the subject of English. In the current article, we combine this model with a learning lives perspective, which builds on the idea of following the learner across a wide range of contexts. The findings illustrate how one learner is able to research a specific topic, build a convincing argument for it and transfer knowledge from one source to another in a critical way. The knowledge of a game and its culture and the world around the game is prevalent in a gamer’s literacy practices out of school, and this is shown when our participant draws upon this knowledge in literacy practices for specific tasks in school.     

Practice and theory in teaching practice

Christensen, O.Ø., “Practice and theory in teaching practice,” Revue ATEE Journal 3 (1980) 43‐48.

The thesis of this word for student teachers on their way to acquire school‐based experience is that there is no direct link between the theory of teacher education and the practice of the school. It is pointed out that, just like the school, teacher education has its own theory and practice. During teaching practice a synthesis is established between the theory‐practice relation of teacher education and that of the school. That is why it is extremely important that the teaching practice tutor should be able to: (a) give justification of his own practice when teaching children; and (b) to function as an adult educator who can argue for his own contribution towards widening the student teacher's growing perception of the teacher's role in society.     

Learning to Teach Through Teaching and Being Taught

Teacher shortage has been a problem in northern Norway for decades. The authorities have taken steps to stimulate the supply of teachers in these regions through economic incentives and decentralized or part‐time teacher education. The full effect of these measures cannot be fully evaluated till the early or middle 1990s. In this article, structure and assessments of first and second generation decentralized and part‐time teacher education are referred. Even though this approach to teacher education has been disputed, it now seems to be accepted by most interest groups. The main problems of these programs seem to be related to the pressures on students trying to fill multiple roles (student, part‐time teacher, mother), and the supervision of students.     

Reading and writing self-efficacy of incarcerated adults

This paper is the first to examine the Reading and Writing Self-Efficacy Scale among incarcerated adults. The aim was to examine whether performance of reading and spelling tests (Reading Speed, Nonsense Words and Spelling) explained individual differences in the participants' efficacy beliefs in reading and writing. Six hundred subjects rated their efficacy beliefs in reading and writing, and 92 of them were also sampled for a reading and spelling test. Factor analysis yielded a two-factor solution dividing the reading items and writing items into separate factors and hierarchical regression analysis revealed that education level and test performance accounted for 36.9% and 34.9% of the statistical variance in reading self-efficacy and writing self-efficacy, respectively. The results suggest that assessment of self-efficacy in reading and writing should be included in a screening procedure of reading and spelling difficulties.     

Negotiating and reshaping Christian values and professional identities through action research: experiential learning and professional development among Christian religious education teachers

In European societies, major patterns of plurality have changed over recent decades due to modernization and globalization. In schools, these new patterns of plurality have consequences for learning processes and may be challenging for students and teachers. This article investigates these issues, taking as its point of departure the way they surfaced in the Norwegian subject-oriented research project ‘Teaching about Religious Diversity in Schools. Applying and Developing an Interpretive Cultural Approach to Religious Education’ (2007–2010). Nine teachers and two researchers worked together in a community of practice, adopting an action research mode of collaboration. Each participant carried out and documented individual development projects, mostly within their own student groups. Developments and results were discussed in regular community-of-practice workshops. The data analysed in this article were generated from these workshops and from interviews with participants. The main research question raised is how an action research project in the field of religious education can lead to professional development for the participants. More specifically, the question is how such development can be described with respect to the relationship between personal and professional aspects of teacher identity and practice. The introduction of core concepts from theories of religious education and action learning triggered a collective inquiry among the participants into their own professional knowledge. Gradually a common professional discourse developed within the community of practice, and the participants became aware of and started to investigate critically how personal values and beliefs played a role in their professional work.     

Agroecology Education: Action-oriented Learning and Research

Abstract

Purpose: This article examines and evaluates the potential contributions from action learning and action research with stakeholders to higher education in agriculture and food systems.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The research is based on our experiences over the past two decades of running PhD courses and an MSc degree programme in Agroecology in Norway that have attracted students from the Nordic region and other countries.

Findings: We conclude that collaborating with non-university stakeholders as an integral part of a university course or programme serves four main purposes, two directly related to learning and two that can be considered as practical implications. Firstly, it enables learning about complex topics, a learning that cannot be achieved by merely reading or listening. Secondly, the real-life flare of such activities provides the students with enthusiasm and energy to delve into theory.

Practical Implications: Thirdly, students collaborating with non-university stakeholders connect university and society. Fourthly, this process builds social relevance and civic engagement not found in conventional courses or curricula.

Originality/Value: The article presents conceptual foundations and practical implementation of a unique educational programme in agriculture and food systems.     

Peregrinatio sive expeditio: Why the First Crusade was not a Pilgrimage

Introduction Since Hans Eberhard Mayer published his Geschichte der Kreuzzüge in 1965 in which he called for a definition of the concept of crusade the issue has been much debated. I was not personally present at the first conference of The Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East that was held in Cardiff in 1983, but according to one eye-witness account the issue was “hotly debated”, and has indeed continued to be so. Central to the discussion has been the question of whether or not crusades only went to the Holy Land or should the term be more generally applied to all papally proclaimed wars, that is between a traditionalist view and a pluralist view. Recently the debate has taken a d0ifferent turn and it has increasingly become a debate about whether the definitions given by modern historians are at all congruous to the medieval phenomenon. In the twelfth century at least there did not exist a term that is congruous to the modern construct of crusade and as John Gilchrist has pointed out, the elements that we are told constituted a crusade – indulgence, pilgrimage, the vow, the remission of sin, an enemy defined by the church – are absent from the canonical collections of the twelfth century. I would not like to say if this modern construct has become “tyrannical”, but it has led at least one English historian, Christopher Tyerman, to ask the question: “Were there any crusades in the twelfth century?” and then conclude in the negative. His conclusions are in fact parallel to the conclusions reached within the study of feudalism, where it has been argued that the concept of feudalism was “invented” by lawyers at the end of the twelfth century under the influence of new-style bureaucratic governments. Historians of the twentieth century, it is possible to argue, used the legal definitions that emerged towards the end of the twelfth century to create the modern concept of crusade. It is, however, obvious from the contemporary sources that people believed that something new was initiated by Urban II (1088–1099) at the council of Clermont in 1095. It is also apparent that the call to arms against the infidels made by Urban II contained some sort of institutional characteristic in the form of new privileges granted to people who wanted to embark upon the expedition to the Holy Land. This, I believe, should be ample reason for us, as historians, to use a word like crusade. But the main conclusion we have to draw from the work of Christopher Tyerman, I think, is to keep in mind that it is not possible to create a matrix of a crusade that applies to the whole crusading period: “The crusade cannot be adequately defined in its own terms because it only existed in relation to the dictates of its shifting western context”.     

Problems of Beginning and More Experienced Teachers in Norway

Jordell, K.Ø.1985. Problems of Beginning and More Experienced Teachers in Norway. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 29, 105‐121. Based on data from 472 Norwegian teachers, this study concludes that beginning teachers do not seem to perceive their problems significantly differently from more experienced teachers. Even though these results may be due to conditions peculiar to Norway, they also raise questions about the validity of claims that beginning to teach is a traumatic experience, as studies where this is claimed rarely compare perceptions of beginning and more experienced teachers.