Cross-cultural dimensions of applied,critical, and transformational leadership: women principals advancing social justice and educational equity

This study, based on the qualitatively rendered experiences and perceptions of educational leaders from historically underserved backgrounds in the US, argues that identity impacts leadership practice. To make this point, researchers build upon an emergent theoretical framework for applied critical leadership from the theories and traditions of transformational leadership, personal leadership, critical pedagogy, and critical race theory. With regard to methodology, a two-subject case study was validated by adding three additional participants for points of verification to the findings and discussion. Interview, field notes, and relevant documents were analyzed using phenomenology and constant comparative methods. Major findings indicate participants’ practice reveal characteristics of cross-cultural applied, critical, and transformational leadership. These scholarly findings are significant because they can inform mainstream leadership practices contributing to educational equity, authentic multiculturalism, improved intercultural relations, innovation, increased academic achievement, and sustainable educational change.     

A novel patchwork model used in lecture and laboratory to teach the three‐dimensional organization of mesenteries

Anatomy teaching is seeing a decline in both lecture and laboratory hours across many medical schools in North America. New strategies are therefore needed to not only make anatomy teaching more clinically integrated, but also to implement new interactive teaching techniques to help students more efficiently grasp the complex organization of the human body. Among the difficult anatomical concepts that students struggle to understand, the anatomy of the peritoneal cavity with its complex projections of peritoneum could benefit strongly from new learning aids. In this report, an innovative teaching tool is presented to engage students during both lecture and laboratory, and help them build three‐dimensional (3D) mental maps of peritoneal cavity. The model consists of a patchwork of mesenteries and gut made from colored cloth stitched together onto a T‐shirt to denote the origin and outflow of each peritoneum projection. As the lecturer wears the life‐size model, the students can appreciate the 3D organization of the peritoneal cavity on a living body. In addition, the T‐shirt model can be used in parallel with dissection to ensure a strong reinforcement of the spatial understanding of the peritoneal cavity. Anat Sci Educ. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

Talking about death: Implementing peer discussion as a coping mechanism to overcome fears about dissection,death, and dying

Many studies have reported on the perceptions of medical students toward dissection. It is important to understand the feelings and symptoms experienced during dissection so that they can be adequately handled. Prior to dissection, first year students are given lectures on aspects of dissection, death and dying, and death rituals in various cultures. Two separate questionnaires, one given during the first week of dissection and another given one month into the program were then completed anonymously by dissection groups. The questions were designed to be open‐ended, thereby encouraging group discussion amongst students. The questionnaires were used to determine the perception of students to dissection and to discover if these perceptions change during the dissection program. The first questionnaire revealed that students do experience fears and anxiety prior to and at the beginning of dissection; however, most of these fears dissipated by the time of the second questionnaire. One month into dissection students cited talking to peers as their main coping mechanism and fewer students mentioned emotional detachment from their cadaver as a coping mechanism, as was the case in the first questionnaire. Dissection was perceived as a positive experience by our student cohort and most students cited the main advantage of dissection as the ability to visualize organs in three dimensions. The comprehensive answers received from the students indicated that thorough discussion of feelings amongst peers occurred, introducing students to an important coping mechanism at an early stage of their learning. Anat Sci Educ. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

The View from Above

Abstract

In South Africa the education system for black children is fraught with problems. These problems are the direct result of apartheid and have been compounded by poverty and illiteracy. In this article the problem of poorly qualified or unqualified teachers is discussed especially with regard to the teaching of map skills to children in their fifth school year. The project team needed to develop affordable materials which could be used in large classes by teachers after a very short period of training. Books and other materials which are available commercially were examined, but for various reasons were found to be unsuitable for local conditions. After determining the extent of the problem, the project team followed a grassroots process of developing a flip chart which teachers learnt to use with confidence and which enabled pupils to master the concepts and skills necessary for understanding a map.     

Sociocultural Settings Influence the Emergence of Prelinguistic Deictic Gestures

Daily activities of forty‐eight 8‐ to 15‐month‐olds and their interlocutors were observed to test for the presence and frequency of triadic joint actions and deictic gestures across three different cultures: Yucatec‐Mayans (Mexico), Dutch (Netherlands), and Shanghai‐Chinese (China). The amount of joint action and deictic gestures to which infants were exposed differed systematically across settings, allowing testing for the role of social–interactional input in the ontogeny of prelinguistic gestures. Infants gestured more and at an earlier age depending on the amount of joint action and gestures infants were exposed to, revealing early prelinguistic sociocultural differences. The study shows that the emergence of basic prelinguistic gestures is socially mediated, suggesting that others' actions structure the ontogeny of human communication from early on.     

Funding,evaluation, and the performance of national research systems

Understanding the quality of science systems requires international comparative studies, which are difficult because of the lack of comparable data especially about inputs in research. In this study, we deploy an approach based on change instead of on levels of inputs and outputs: an approach that to a large extent eliminates the problem of measurement differences between countries. We firstly show that there are large differences in efficiency between national science systems, defined as the increase in output (highly cited papers) per percentage increase in input (funding). We then discuss our findings using popular explanations of performance differences: differences in funding systems (performance related or not), differences in the level of competition, differences in the level of university autonomy, and differences in the level of academic freedom. Interestingly, the available data do not support these common explanations. What the data suggest is that efficient systems are characterized by a well-developed ex post evaluation system combined with considerably high institutional funding and relatively low university autonomy (meaning a high autonomy of professionals). On the other hand, the less efficient systems have a strong ex ante control, either through a high level of so-called competitive project funding, or through strong power of the university management. Another conclusion is that more and better data are needed.     

Writing histories for late-medieval objects: The engagement of conservation with theoretical perspectives on material culture

The current discipline of conservation lacks a satisfactory theoretical and methodological framework to guide historical writing beyond scientific methods. To address this gap, this paper evaluates disciplinary shortcomings and proposes a solution for a project based in Oslo that takes advantage of disciplinary strengths. The solution involves the adaptation of a robust critical approach that is closely aligned with post-processualism in archaeology, which notably engages with theoretical perspectives on material culture. The framework offers guidance for arguments developed around physical transformations of late-medieval liturgical objects and the circumstances (physical, environmental, and socio-political) that continually define and re-define their meanings. The themes chosen for the project set this research at the cross-roads between conservation and material culture studies, with investigations directed towards tangible and intangible transformations, or phases in the ‘lives’ of objects that pre-date the Reformation but are now held in museums.