Critical intercultural conversations: using activity systems analysis as a tool for educational ethnography

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the tensions that exist between the recognition of the importance of ethnicity and culture for individual and group identities without essentilisation, by reframing conceptualisations of multi- and interculturalism. Drawing from our ongoing ethnography conducted with a research community of Alaska Native PhD candidates involved in participatory action research, we examine how situated and multiple positionalities enacted through participation in Engeström’s concept of an ‘activity system’ can: (a) contribute to the ‘doing’ of ethnography and provide an analytic framework for ethnographic research; and, (b) contribute to understandings of multi- and intercultural education that promote the questioning of hierarchical power structures through dialogue aimed toward equity and social justice.     

Examining child sexual abuse evaluations: the types of information affecting expert judgment

OBJECTIVE: There were two aims: First, to determine to what extent four variables, disclosure, doll play, affect and collateral information, affect the decision-making processes of child sexual abuse experts and lay persons when confronted with an abuse allegation, and second, to see how these two groups of raters might differ from one another. METHOD: A randomized block partially confounded factorial design was used. Participants made abuse likelihood and confidence ratings in response to six hypothetical cases of child sexual abuse, four of which had varying combinations of the four types of information and two of which were constant across all raters. Participants also completed attitudes and knowledge questionnaires. RESULTS: Disclosure and collateral information both had large effects on both rater groups. Doll play and affect had little or no effect on the decisions of either group. Experts were slightly more conservative in their judgments over all than students were. Experts also displayed more knowledge of the sexual abuse literature and more child-believing attitudes than their student counterparts. CONCLUSION: Concrete information such as disclosure statements and collateral information affected abuse decisions while inferential data such as doll play and affect did not. The goal of these evaluations may be the clarification of such concrete information and the inferential data may be used only to guide one's inquiry. This conclusion argues against the concern that experts might jump to conclusions of abuse merely based upon suggestive, symbolic material.     

Education Policy Research and the Global Knowledge Economy

Knowledge is and will be produced in order to be sold; it is and will be consumed in order to be valorised in a new production: in both cases, the goal is exchange.(Jean-Francois Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: a report on knowledge. , 1984, p.4)
We live in a social universe in which the formation, circulation, and utilization of knowledge presents a fundamental problem.If the accumulation of capital has been an essential feature of our society, the accumulation of knowledge has not been any less so.Now, the exercise, production, and accumulation of this knowledge cannot be dissociated from the mechanisms of power; complex relations exist which must be analysed.(Michel Foucault, Remarks on Marx: conversations with Duccio Trombadori , 1991, p.165)     

IMPLICATIONS OF PRESTEL AND OTHER TV PRINT SOURCES

Since Prestel and other televised print sources signal a revolution in the presentation of reading material to the public, it is necessary to ensure that the viewers are able to read the material. Are they ready and able to adapt their reading skills to read televised texts? Differences between page print and television print are discussed, with respect to form and style, and recommendations are made about the responsibility of the educational establishment towards the preparation of potential viewers.     

Multicultural Complexity: an Intersectional Lens for Clinical Supervision

The author discusses the need for counselor educators and supervisors to promote the intersectional nature of identities in counselor trainees and supervisees, especially as supervision serves as the vanguard for professional development and provides a more individually tailored space. This article introduces the concept of multicultural complexity, along with its current dearth in the counseling literature. The utility of multicultural complexity is explored, and recommendations made in the form of sample action plans (Appendix) regarding how counselor educators and supervisors can further incorporate the concept into the practice of clinical supervision.     

Gender and Gender Identity Differences in Learning Styles

In the past decade, extensive research on gender and learning styles has produced a multitude of findings: gender differences in learning styles are small on average, but across studies quite different results are observed. In the present study, this heterogeneity is the central focus of our attention. Two possible interpretations concerning the educational context and the concept of gender identity are investigated: the teacher and the subject he or she teaches. Besides the variable gender as a dichotomous variable, the variable gender identity is included to reflect the theoretical standpoint of the social construction of gender differences. Using multivariate techniques on a data set of 432 adult secondary students, the observed relations between gender, gender identity and learning styles are described. Gender identity turns out to explain more variance in the use of learning styles compared to gender. Furthermore, it is shown that gender (identity) differences in learning styles do not vary across teachers and, with one exception, they do not vary across subjects.