African healing and western psychotherapy: Meetings between professionalsGuérison Africaine et Psychothérapie Occidentale: Rencontres entre ProfessionnelsCuración Africana y Psicoterapia Occidental: Reuniones entre Profesionales

The institutions of traditional healing, as practiced in Black Africa, and psychotherapy, as practiced in Western culture, are compared in terms of their relative positions within the broader health care systems of the respective cultures, and in terms of their therapeutic techniques. Data is based on personal work experience in East Africa 10 years ago and on eight recent interviews with mental health professionals and healers in West Africa. (The author is an American-trained clinical psychologist.) It is concluded that these two institutions carry on the same function in their respective cultures, but differ in format according to the different dominant family configurations of the two cultures.     

Racial stereotypes revisited

Fifty-one black and 66 white college students were administered the Katz and Braly Checklist (1933) and instructed to select five adjectives that best described first themselves, second, black Americans, and third, white Americans. They then rated each adjective on a favorability scale from 1 to 5. Changes in the content of stereotypes were determined by calculating the 10 most frequently checked adjectives for black and for white Americans and comparing that with data from Katz and Braly (1933), Bayton (1941) and Maykovich (1972). Currently, black Americans are described as musical, loyal to family ties, very religious, progressive, ambitious, and quick-tempered. White Americans are described as intelligent, materialistic, ambitious, industrious, conventional, and conservative. The content of the white stereotype remained more stable over the years than the black stereotype. The white stereotype has slowly decreased in favorability over the years while the black stereotype has increased. Black and white students rated themselves more favorably than they rated the other or their own race.     

Why fund heritage? The role of research in the Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) distributes money from the National Lottery to heritage. Since 1995 the HLF has given some £3 billion to 15,000 projects. As a small organization with a relatively large remit, applied research has been critical to the work of the HLF, helping it set priorities, make decisions and evaluate its programmes. Key research issues include: defining the needs of the heritage, the best means of evaluating projects and programmes, and capturing the economic and social benefits of heritage. Young people can be a difficult audience for heritage funders to reach, and it is shown how evaluation informed a dedicated new programme. The example of its support of parks shows how a need identified through research became a priority for the HLF, and has since been taken up by government. Finally, the HLF has developed a distinctive approach based on a very open concept of what heritage is and means to people. Research into public attitudes to heritage has been central to this.

The Lottery will be reviewed in the lead up to the licence review in 2009 and inevitably questions will be asked about the future of funding. In another context, the Secretary of State has asked how it is possible to capture the value of culture. In common with organizations who deal with sports, art and culture, the HLF needs to capture the benefits of funding in a way that makes sense to both politicians and the public. Doing this depends upon robust research.     

Geek learning

Conclusion The 1914 definition of geek reads: (1) a person, often of an intellectual bent, who is disapproved of, (2) a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake (Merriam-Webster, 1997). Nowadays geeks rule. Geeks are now enmeshed at a very high level in every facet of the information age that is changing the world spinning under our feet. Geeks are literally building this new information world by producing the software and hardware that make it run. Geeks get work, geeks are becoming attractive partners, and geeks are actually cool! The times they are a changin” ! Perhaps a new definition in the year 2000 might read: ( 1 ) a person prone to energetic acceptance of emerging technology, esp. computers and the Internet, (2) one whose act includes selfdirected learning of such technology. Geek learning is basically self-directed learning with a heavy dash of exploratory learning thrown in for good measure. However, support for selfdirected learning in higher education has been shown to be very low (Wilcox, 1996). This low level of support is evidence of the resistance to the new information age, a natural but dangerous reaction to chaos. I believe that the chaotic and decentralized nature of the exploding information age demands a reexamination of theories such as “self-directed” and “exploratory” learning— terms coined by non-geeks to describe things geeks do naturally. In these times, teachers and instructional designers grappling with how to facilitate technology learning should heed the advice of the old expression, “When in Rome ...” and just let it go, and G.E.E.K.O.U.T!     

Astronomical fire: Richard Carrington and the solar flare of 1859

An explosion on the Sun in 1859, serendipitously witnessed by amateur astronomer Richard Carrington, plunged telegraphic communications into chaos and bathed two thirds of the Earth's skies in aurorae. Explaining what happened to the Sun and how it could affect Earth, 93 million miles away, helped change the direction of astronomy. From being concerned principally with charting the stars to aid navigation, astronomers became increasingly concerned with what the celestial objects were, how they behaved and how they might affect life on Earth.