Narratives of ‘doing,knowing, being and becoming’: examining the impact of an attachment-informed approach within initial teacher education

The Scottish Government’s vision of improving outcomes for children prioritises attachment theory and research in promoting children’s well-being across children’s services. This theme is also noted as increasing international relevance. Our narrative research springs from the experience of designing and delivering the first course within initial teacher education in Scotland to focus on the application of attachment theory to the role and identity of the teacher – particularly, in supporting children vulnerable through experiences of trauma and adversity. We capture students’ ‘real time’ learning moments through reflective journaling during school experience within the analytic ‘Doing, knowing, being and becoming’. Emergent themes include: looking behind and responding to behaviours, making links with ‘lived lives’, understanding teachers’ potential as attachment figures and ‘secure base’, understanding the relevance of adult attachment theory and resilience/self-care to teachers’ emotions and their own attachment experiences.     

Community-Enhanced Repository for Engaged Scholarship: A case study on supporting digital humanities research

ABSTRACT

Building digital curation and sustainability into digital humanities project development is challenging, and engaging digital humanities researchers fully as partners in curation practices with the library is even more so. How can we represent the longevity and sustainability of digital humanities research projects as a shared responsibility between faculty and student researchers and library staff? Northeastern University Libraries Digital Scholarship Group has designed a series of tools and workflows to ease the burden of sustainable development, support community engagement with digital materials, and enable the library and its partners to work together to build sustainable digital projects.     

Remote management of library staff: Challenges and practical solutions

COVID-19 has forced staff in academic libraries across the world to pivot from face-to-face workdays and services to fully remote (and, in some cases, back again) with very little time or notice. This new reality has presented new challenges in the remote management of staff that may also be working remotely, or in the building. This column explores some of those challenges and presents possible solutions for those at all levels of library management.     

Health Sciences Patron Preference for Library Spaces: A Multisite Observational Study

Health sciences libraries are often challenged to make decisions regarding physical space allocation without quantitative data to support specific user preferences. This multisite, longitudinal study sought to answer the following questions related to academic health sciences libraries: (1) Which library spaces are popular with health sciences patrons? (2) How does time of day and allocated seating space affect patron choices? (3) What similarities and differences occur in space usage across four different health sciences libraries? Results suggest health sciences libraries must develop a nuanced understanding of their patrons’ preferences to best serve patrons’ needs regarding space allocation. Libraries can benefit from these types of methodological studies that target specific populations, supporting more informed space allocation decision making.     

DIY ERM (Do-It-Yourself Electronic Resources Management) for the Small Library

Sarah Hartman-Caverly’s presentation gave audience members an overview of how she designed and built an electronic resources management (ERM) system using Microsoft Access 2010. She discussed why she used a homegrown ERM as well as the principles she used for good system design. Finally, she reviewed the tools she used for creating her own system, including use case analysis, data analysis, database tables and relationships, and forms.     

Kinematic repeatability of a multi-segment foot model for dance*

The purpose of this study was to determine the intra and inter-assessor repeatability of a modified Rizzoli Foot Model for analysing the foot kinematics of ballet dancers. Six university-level ballet dancers performed the movements; parallel stance, turnout plié, turnout stance, turnout rise and flex-point-flex. The three-dimensional (3D) position of individual reflective markers and marker triads was used to model the movement of the dancers’ tibia, entire foot, hindfoot, midfoot, forefoot and hallux. Intra and inter-assessor reliability demonstrated excellent (ICC ≥ 0.75) repeatability for the first metatarsophalangeal joint in the sagittal plane. Intra-assessor reliability demonstrated excellent (ICC ≥ 0.75) repeatability during flex-point-flex across all inter-segmental angles except for the tibia-hindfoot and hindfoot-midfoot frontal planes. Inter-assessor repeatability ranged from poor to excellent (0.5 > ICC ≥ 0.75) for the 3D segment rotations. The most repeatable measure was the tibia-foot dorsiflexion/plantar flexion articulation whereas the least repeatable measure was the hindfoot-midfoot adduction/abduction articulation. The variation found in the inter-assessor results is likely due to inconsistencies in marker placement. This 3D dance specific multi-segment foot model provides insight into which kinematic measures can be reliably used to ascertain in vivo technical errors and/or biomechanical abnormalities in a dancer’s foot motion.     

‘The Plastic Ceiling Project’: Advantages of Using Arts‐Based Research to Explore the Pain of Mothers that Work and Study

Since the publication of the Dearing Report in 1997, the UK Government has consistently promoted social mobility and fairness as part of its rhetoric. Yet as Brooks and others have pointed out, compared with other groups of ‘non‐traditional’ students, student mothers and part‐time students with jobs have been given limited consideration, both in terms of policy intervention and research. Despite the drive for inclusivity in higher education institutions, students with mothering responsibilities who are also in employment, often need to overcome considerable challenges in order to complete the course requirements; challenges which often result in extensive emotional pain. Using methods of photo‐elicitation and blogging, The Plastic Ceiling Project aimed to create a platform for mothers that worked and studied to discuss this emotional pain, allowing participants to highlight and discuss commonalities within their experiences. Rather than aiming to ‘solve’ problems for participants, this methodology aimed to empower individuals by allowing them to create a shared reality together, co‐create knowledge and to give them a vehicle to discuss and resolve difficulties and challenges collectively. This article considers how an arts‐based approach to research may have contributed to achieving those aims.     

Nobody tells you how to be a SENCo

The ways in which SENCos identify themselves and how they enact the SENCo role is the focus of this research by Sarah Rosen‐Webb, an associate tutor and course coordinator at Middlesex University. Who becomes a SENCo and how different individuals develop their SENCo role is explored through the study of the career pathways of nine SENCos in nine secondary schools in England. Data from semi‐structured interviews and completion of Diamond Nine activities were coded and analysed using grounded theory procedures. Recommendations arising from this research indicate that recruitment initiatives and development programmes need to be alert to the dynamics between management and teaching roles of SENCos, and to be careful in maintaining a balance between management training and specialist teacher training.