Whose ‘voice’ is it anyway? The paradoxes of the participatory narrative

This study discusses some of the paradoxes found in the rhetoric of participatory research. Research-with-children views them as competent and agentic and as social actors, as citizens with opinions that must be listened to and given due weight. This image of the child as a social actor fails to acknowledge the structural, contextual and relational conditions that can afford or restrict opportunities for children’s agentic action. It conceals the multi-faceted, multi-dimensional properties of power that shape children’s (and adults’) contributions and ‘voices’. Our research took place in a primary school and aimed at training Year 6 children to carry out their own research on their chosen topic of interest. The participatory research ‘space’ was informed by the participants’ different intentionalities and agendas. The children were invited to take initiatives and make decisions, to be agentic. However, their agency, or what counts as ‘proper’ agency, was framed and defined in our adult terms. Tensions arose when the children’s agendas conflicted with and threatened ours. As we argue here, this participatory space should rather be seen as a political arena, where different and often competing agendas are at play, where the roles and relationships between children and adults are far from fixed, and where the capacity for agentic action is always socially mediated and shaped by social structure.     

Identifying families with complex needs after an initial child abuse investigation: A comparison of demographics and needs related to domestic violence,mental health,and substance use

Families with complex needs related to domestic violence, mental health, and substance use have some of the worst child protective services (CPS) outcomes. Although many of these families are identified during a CPS investigation and subsequently referred to home-based postinvestigation services (HBPS), many are re-reported to CPS, so it is important to understand the postinvestigation experiences of this vulnerable group. Therefore, this study compared families with and without complex needs to understand their uniquedemographics, needs, and postinvestigation outcomes.The sample consisted of 2008 caregivers who received HBPS following an initial CPS investigation. The Family Assessment Form (FAF) was used to measure family functioning in eight domains using a 1–5 scale with higher ratings representing worse functioning. Complex needs were indicated by a mean FAF score of 3 or higher for either domestic violence, mental health, or substance use. Using Pearson chi-square analyses and two-sample t-tests, comparisons were made between families with (n = 836) and without (n = 1172) complex needs. Half of caregivers with complex needs had a history of abuse, 25% had three to five needs, and nearly half had six to eight needs; 90% of caregivers without complex needs had zero to two needs. Furthermore, caregivers with complex needs had higher mean scores for concrete, educational, and clinical needs. These findings highlight the importance of recognizing variation among families referred to HBPS and accurate screening to ensure that families with complex needs are offered and receive services matched to their unique characteristics and needs.     

What About the Hyperlocals?

Using a survey of a sample of hyperlocal actors in Sweden (N?=?178), this article examines preconditions, motivations and sustainability for hyperlocal media operations, outside the traditional media chains, in order to provide a picture of their function in the current media landscape, and to further build on the understanding of the hyperlocal business model. This study extends the hyperlocal definition by including media platforms other than websites. The results show that the operations indeed aim to support and foster citizenship, strengthen democracy and mirror the local community. At the same time, as shown by other studies, the fact that they are not large-scale, highly profitable operations may challenge their sustainability. Nonetheless, most of them claim to be profitable, largely because of the print platform, and have a positive outlook on the future. Revenues from advertising and readership are currently less substantial for Web-based operations, which reinforces the need to broaden the definition of hyperlocal publishing platforms when talking about financial sustainability. Currently, hyperlocal media in Sweden, with small resources and a lower publishing frequency, cannot be viewed as a replacement of established media, but play important roles as complementary alternative voices and contribute to media plurality in the local community.     

民事调解中不当调解问题研究

当前我国民事调解过程中存在不同类型的不当调解,其中以硬性调解和恶意调解最为典型。针对硬性调解可采用的对策有:坚持司法独立原则、科学构建调解考核标准、把握民事调解的内在规律、把调解与执行有效衔接。针对恶意调解的对策有:加强社会诚信教育、加大违法成本、需要法官高度警惕、重视调查案件的事实真相、落实法律救济。     

中国医疗纠纷非诉讼解决机制的完善——基于法经济学角度

非诉讼解决机制是解决医疗纠纷的重要方式,从法经济学的角度看,人们对它的选择符合法经济学中＂经济人＂的理性选择,同时也是法律制度追求效率结果的必然选择。尽管非诉讼机制与经济学观点存在诸多契合,但其本身尚存在一些不足和缺陷。因此,该机制在对医疗纠纷的使用中需进一步规范化,在保证效率的基础上彰显公平正义。     

补充和替代医学现状及其在运动医学的应用

近年来西方国家已开始将主流医学(conventional medicine)即西医之外的其它医学称之为补充和替代医学 (complementary and alternative medicine,CAM)。美国国家补充和替代医学中心(NCCAM)则进而把替代医学定义为目前尚未被考虑为主流医学的构成部份的医学实践。我国传统的中医药学及针灸推拿也被纳入这一范畴。近年来,西方主流医学界也对替代疗法进行了重新评价和认识,对替代医学的态度也发生了变化。与普通人群相比,运动员更多的求助于替代医学。这里探讨了在发达国家受运动员欢迎的几种替代疗法,它们包括针灸、脊柱按摩疗法、高压氧疗法、磁疗、推拿及松弛疗法。     

对参数假设检验中几对关系的研究

参数假设检验中存在四对密切相关的概念:原假设与备择假设、两类错误、P-值法与临界值法、区间估计与假设检验,深入了解这些概念及其原理之间的关系有利于准确把握假设检验的思想与方法。     

序线性拓扑空间中多目标规划的最优性条件

利用序线性拓扑空间中的次似凸映射下的择一定理得到多目标规划的最优性条件。     

High school students' evolving alternative conception related to the volume of gas: A Lakatosian perspective

The purpose of this case study, informed by a Lakatosian perspective, is to identify how an alternative conception that originates in present learning but is related directly to subsequent learning contexts can be constructed. Before the study, one of the authors found by accident that a student who had learned about Avogadro's principle and chemical reaction in South Korea constructed an alternative conception related to the volume of gas. Later, we identified seven Korean high school students with the alternative conception through a test and analyzed their underlying understandings qualitatively through interviews. The results show that they had a scientific conception—core conception—and intuitive assumptions about implicit information of external representations—implicit assumptions—in common. The students' implicit assumptions could be divided into three types again: core assumption, auxiliary assumption, and context-inducing assumption. The core assumption, like the core conception, played a significant role in constructing the alternative conception (hard core), while the auxiliary assumptions were incomplete implicit assumptions to protect the alternative conception (protective belt). The context-inducing assumption was an implicit assumption bringing the context of the subsequent curriculum, and the core conception and the core assumption could be interpreted in this induced context. At the end of the study, the implications related to learning progressions were discussed.     

Student-centred and teacher-centred learning environments: what students think

This contribution explores the relationship between teacher-centred and student-centred learning environments from a student's perspective. Three different views with respect to this relationship can be retrieved. The balance view suggests that the more teacher-centred a learning environment is, the less student-centred it is and vice versa. The transactional view stresses the continuous renegotiation of teacher- and student-roles. The independent view argues that teacher- and student-centredness are independent features of learning environments. Results from three survey studies of higher education students’ conceptions of quality education are discussed. While the practice-oriented literature regularly seems to adopt a balance view, factor analyses did not reveal evidence for the balance view in any of these studies. In students’ minds student-centredness and teacher-centredness seem to be mutually reinforcing features of high quality education. From a curricular point of view, and especially with regard to teacher training, the results warrant to argue for the development of so-called powerful learning environments rather than for the transition from teacher-centred towards student-centred learning environments.