‘Tell me your story!’ – Making the ‘Other’ Visible through the Development of Collaborative Visual Narratives

This article reports on the findings of a series of participatory video art/documentary workshops designed and implemented to enhance understanding and collaboration between teenagers of diverse cultural backgrounds in the city of Pafos in the Republic of Cyprus. This research initiative was part of The Alien Trail (2017); a photographic project that explored the everyday life of refugees and migrants currently living in the island through the images of four distinguished photographers: Antoine D’Agata, Nikos Economopoulos, Bieke Depoorter and Nicolas Iordanou (Project Creator). The workshops were co‐designed by artists, educators and anthropologists in order to promote visual and multimodal communication amongst participants through short video and documentary making and collaborative drawing sessions. The findings of this practice highlight that teenagers were able to develop empathy and understanding by discussing and sharing meaning through exploring each other’s visual narratives.     

Developing Successful Readers: Building Early Comprehension Skills through Television Viewing and Listening

Developing the ability to read is a complex process involving a variety of skills, including both basic language skills and language comprehension skills. Although a balanced reading program would include the development of basic language and comprehension skills, comprehension has often been overlooked in early reading instruction. In this article, we examine recent research findings on how comprehension skills develop in young children and discuss the implications of those findings for comprehension assessment and interventions.     

‘Crafting the future’: pioneer lessons and concerns for today

A recent qualitative research study gathered the career reflections of the generation of distance education practitioners who developed more flexible higher education (via distance modes) in the second half of the twentieth century. Part of that study’s results focus on the lessons the practitioners learned about what constitutes effective distance education and the concerns they expressed about the future. These are reported here. The key lessons are grouped around patience, tolerance and listening, respectfulness, responsiveness, the qualities needed for innovation and institutional management, and use of technologies. Appropriate use, technical reliability, and critical mindsets emerged as key lessons for technology applications. Ten questions then help readers engage their own reflective thinking and investigate knowledge transfer possibilities.     

Anomalous beasts and the sociology of education

Abstract

The author reflects on continuities and changes in the subdiscipline, using Mary Douglas and Basil Bernstein. In 2000 the millennial issue of Sociology, the generic journal of the British Sociological Association, included a paper about the sociology of education called ‘The anomalous beasts: Hooligans and the sociology of education’. It focused on hooligans as anomalous beasts in the sociology of education, and the sub-discipline as an anomalous beast within the discipline of sociology itself. It concluded with, very poor, predictions about the likely state of sociology of education and UK sociology in 2025. The fortieth anniversary of BJSE is a good time to revisit that millennial evaluation in order to offer a new sociologically informed re-evaluation of the field in 2020, set an agenda to highlight some of the current weaknesses in the sub-discipline and update the analysis of the uneasy relationship with the wider discipline of Sociology itself.     

Identity negotiations in conflict-ridden societies: historical and anthropological perspectives

Abstract

The present paper deals with epistemological and methodological issues as these touch upon the products of educational practices related to the teaching of historical narratives in settings purposely created to facilitate dialogue, inclusion and recognition among children thought to be belonging in clearly differentiated and antagonistic groups in a conflict-ridden area – i.e. Israeli Jews and Palestinians, and Greek and Turkish Cypriots. It offers an overview of the sociopolitical and educational contexts the authors have studied and vignettes of some of the events that captured their attention and led them to critically approach present theorising on peace and multicultural education. It finalises with reflections on the epistemological and methodological issues the authors encountered in their studies.     

Beyond fairness: the ethics of inclusion for transgender and intersex athletes

Sporting communities remain entangled in debate over whether and how to include transgender and intersex athletes in competition with cisgender athletes. Of particular concern is that transgender and intersex athletes may have unfair physiological advantages over their cisgender opponents. Arguments for inclusion of transgender and intersex athletes in sport attempt to demonstrate that such inclusion does not threaten the presumed physiological equivalence among competitors and is therefore fair to all. This article argues that the physiological equivalency rationale has significant limitations, including an inordinate emphasis on sport as a comparative test. Instead, this article contends that arguments for narrativity rather than physiological equivalency show that exclusion is not only misguided but also undesirable: it is detrimental not only to the excluded athletes but to sport itself. The article yields several important consequences including calls for revisions to policies on transgender and intersex athletes.     

The place of play: from playground to policy to classroom well-being

In 2010 the Provincial Government of Ontario, Canada introduced a new play-based learning curriculum. Educational stakeholders (i.e. teachers, early childhood educators and student teachers) have been charged with the task of implementing the play-based curriculum, which upholds children's fundamental right to play, as a means to health and well-being. In this paper, we examine educator's experiences with the new play-based curriculum in Toronto, ON, Canada's largest city. While we found that a play-based curriculum has been championed with respect to health and well-being in educational policy, there are many challenges integrating play into teaching practices, especially in an era of standardized testing. We conclude that while there are benefits to play-based learning for children's health, it is important to further investigate whether current iterations of play-based curricula are a new pedagogical site for governing children's bodies or whether play-based curricula allow children to experience, and engage with the pleasure and ambiguities of play in their daily lives in schools.     

Dissemination of culture of conflict in the Israeli mass media: The wars in Lebanon as a case study

Societies involved in intractable conflicts develop cultures of conflict because of experiences that have lasting effects on every aspect of collective life. One product of these cultures is conflict-supporting narratives that provide illumination, justification, and explanation of the conflict reality. These narratives are selective, biased, and distortive, but play an important role in satisfying the basic sociopsychological needs of the society members involved. In these societies, journalists often serve as agents in the formulation and dissemination of these conflict-supporting narratives. The present study analyzes the presentations of narratives of the culture of conflict among Jewish Israeli journalists during Israeli wars in Lebanon. It elucidates the dominant themes of the narratives by content analysis of the news published in newspapers and broadcast on television. In addition, in order to reveal the practices used by journalists in obtaining, selecting, and publishing the news, in-depth interviews with journalists and politicians have been conducted.     

Role of the Information Professional in the Development and Promotion of Digital Humanities Content for Research,Teaching, and Learning in the Modern Academic Library: An Irish Case Study

ABSTRACT

The Internet has been the catalyst for the convergence of many subject areas and online platforms. Information professionals such as Archivists, IT developers and especially Librarians have been impacted in the development and promotion of digital humanities content for research, teaching, and learning in the modern academic library. In this case study, relevant findings from research that sought to determine the level of awareness of digital humanities in Irish Libraries is examined. The research project, The Mary Martin Diary, is highlighted as an example of a multidisciplinary collaboration project that utilized library communication skills, project management skills, digital humanities tools and techniques, as well as other online resources in its development. These skills and tools have the potential to be applied to similar projects that librarians engage in. Recommendations derived from this research highlight the practical application of skills for information professionals and their roles in the development and promotion of digital humanities content for research, teaching, and learning in the modern academic library.     

《后悔录》:"如果"叙事中的"后悔"体验

东西的《后悔录》是一部“如果书”。他用“如果”这一个词构架了一整部小说。“如果”是小说叙事的动力、核心、关键,“如果”叙事营造了过去——现在往复循环的时间架构,揭示了人生的偶然感、虚幻感,展示了“揪心”的后悔体验,最终小说写作这一事件本身成为“游戏”的一个文本。