A Case of Shifting Focus Friction: Extension Directors and State 4-H Program Leaders’ Perspectives on 4-H LGBTQ+ Inclusion

Contemporary Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+) youth are identifying and communicating their identities earlier in childhood than generations before as a result of more awareness and more acceptance of gender identity and sexual minorities by society. A qualitative study of U.S. 4-H program leaders and Extension directors generated an emergent theme around the importance of serving LGBT youth and the resulting implementation challenges. The administrators of 4-H, the largest youth serving organization in the country, recognize the presence of LGBTQ+ youth in 4-H and believe the organization must be inclusive. But challenges remain in ensuring youth experience inclusion at all levels of the organization and to manage political and societal pressures resulting from shifting focus friction.

An Evolving Inquiry of Monastic Spiritual Care for Aging Inmates

This investigation involved focus-group inquiry of the Oblates in Prison Program, a faith-based ministry founded on monastic principles in the Rule of St. Benedict. Data from a Benedictine Order monk and program coordinator, ordained prison minister, and lay ministry volunteer were collected. Participants were asked a series of questions regarding the spiritual care of aging prisoners. Responses were coded and cross-compared for thematic content. Of central thematic importance was implementation of a spiritual care model using traditional monastic rules for daily living. A second theme centered on purposeful rebuilding of self-renewal through stability and obedience. A final emergent theme encompassed institutional acceptance in the provision of religious sacraments, sacred texts, and artifacts. Results highlight the broader implications of providing spiritual care and outreach to aging prisoners. The role of restorative justice for successful delivery of faith-based spiritual care for improved rehabilitation of aging inmates will be further addressed.

Some pupils should know better (because there is better knowledge than opinion). Interim findings from an empirical study of pupils’ and teachers’ understandings of knowledge and big questions in Religious Education

In this paper, we draw on interim findings of our research project on Religious Education (RE), knowledge and big questions. We have found Miranda Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice useful in our analysis—that is, the notion that a person can be wronged “specifically in their capacity as a knower (Fricker 2007, 1). In interviews with Key Stage 3 pupils (aged 12–14) we found that for many pupils, their capacity to know was hindered by the prioritisation of respect for opinion. Where opinion is considered something not to be questioned, this seems to be a key indicator of epistemic disadvantage while some pupils valued and could employ criticality when considering knowledge claims (including opinions). Epistemic advantage in this way exacerbates epistemic injustice, broadening a gap between the epistemic haves and have-nots. This research is part of a larger project where we attempt to answer the question: ‘Does Religious Education have a distinctive contribution to make to the development of epistemic literacy?’. We begin with our account of epistemic literacy underpinned by Young’s powerful knowledge (Young and Muller 2010) and contextualise our data with discourses about knowledge and school education. We focus largely on the emergent theme of (respect for) opinions and we argue that the prioritisation of respect in RE is (for some pupils) a barrier to knowledge. We go on to explore why this matters for individuals, society and RE.

Negotiating bereavement and loss: Influencing persistence and desistance from crime

Much previous research has considered experiences of bereavement and loss in a prison-based setting. This overshadows the nature of bereavement within the context of community supervision and probation delivery, resulting in inadequate explorations of the potential link to persistence and/or desistance from crime. Research into desistance has predominantly focused on relationships with those who are still alive. This article evidences an emergent theme of bereavement experiences within the context of probation delivery, relationships and desistance. It draws upon narrative research undertaken within a Community Rehabilitation Company in the north of England, collected as part of a doctoral thesis. Evidence demonstrates the similarities between the process of desistance and that of bereavement with the narratives of men and women reiterating how bereavement can influence the onset of criminal or risk-taking behaviour whilst highlighting emergent evidence on how bereavement can disrupt desistance. This enables the article to highlight the importance of resilience in the process of both bereavement and desistance.

Our Pluriverse and Gàidhealtachd: Emplacing Ethical Relations

In this brief essay, to conclude the special issue, I take a reflexive and ontological (re)turn to the Gàidhealtachd. After completing our main task of bringing this collection together, an emplaced and ontological turn has been in some measure evident across the articles, emphasising relationships with place/s. In writing up our guest editors' introduction, a related emergent theme, or atmosphere, of place and ontological relations within the Gàidhealtachd became important. In continuing with that (perhaps minor) ‘turn’, in this essay I engage with my lived experiences of cultural change and exchange, including with my research, emplaced within and beyond the Gàidhealtachd. This (ex)change has profoundly influenced my creative practice, social practice and research relationships with the Gàidhealtachd – reemphasising an ontological (re)turn to place, and its ethical relations and futures.

Beyond place-based: the role of virtual communities via social media in young adult recovery

In post-disaster recovery, optimising psychosocial support is important for all groups of the population, yet young adults have tended to be overlooked as a demographic in their own right. Research was conducted to seek the perspectives of young adults through the narrative of their experiences in the years following the 2009 Gippsland bushfires. One emergent theme in the findings highlighted the importance of information and communication during and after events. Participants in this research sought information and support via social media and virtual communities. These sites traverse localised, place-based solutions, enabling young people to communicate over large geographical areas. The platforms aid dynamic and rapidly evolving support by sharing information, feelings and ideas. This research also highlighted the need to identify the gaps in information processes and support systems for young adults and to ensure youth-specific information is included in formal communications. Possible solutions are outlined taking into consideration the perspectives offered by the study participants.

Be(com)ing and the International Teacher

Despite the growth of international schools and the increasing demands for teachers, there remains a dearth of knowledge regarding teachers and their development of praxis within an international setting. Within the study, praxis is understood as the entire skills, knowledge and experience teachers draw upon when developing their work – a process grounded in reflexivity. Praxis moved the static understanding of doing work, by enabling work and practitioner as an ongoing process of becoming. The current study seeks to shed some light into this space. In particular, it aims to explore why and how secondary school teachers become ‘international', and the impact such development has on their praxis. It also seeks to explore how teachers, as front-line workers, position themselves within the discourse surrounding international schools as artificers of a global elite driven by a Western, globalist agenda. An emergent theme is the centrality the International Baccalaureate plays for international teachers.

DOUBT AND DISENGAGEMENT: TECHNOLOGIES AND PRACTICES OF DIGITAL DISCONNECTION

When people distrust media systems, one response is to disconnect. This emergent theme within internet research encompasses technologies, practices, discourses, and politics of disconnection. Furthering these discussions, this panel draws together four investigations into technologies and practices of digital disconnection. Each paper interrogates a different form of disconnection and considers the various elements of trust and/or mistrust they reflect. Two of the papers focus on forms of disconnection centered around avoidance. One takes up the problem of digital propaganda and the associated declining trust in online media systems. It argues that informational avoidance in the form of ‘strategic illiteracies’ might open new spaces for resistance to misinformation. The other paper considers the challenge of managing personal availability in a context where mobile communication creates expectations of continual availability. It investigates the discursive practices that young adults use to avoid others and argues that these practices rest on implicit systems of trust. The remaining two papers consider how neoliberal discourses of self-improvement shape disconnective practices and technologies. They investigate forms of disconnection that are based around consumption choices and technology design. In both papers, disconnection is driven by growing distrust in dominant modes of technology design, specifically, their cognitive impacts. In response, the disconnective practices and technologies discussed in these papers place their trust in individualised, and often technological, solutions. Overall, the panel contributes to scholarly debate around disconnection by considering new forms of disconnection, their role in our contemporary media environment, and the forms of trust and mistrust they reflect.

Student engagement research 2010-2018: continuity and emergence

<p>From an initial collection of 210 studies about student engagement published since 2010, the paper synthesized 70. The purpose was threefold: to identify ever present themes currently informing this complex construct; to offer suggestions of how these themes could inform educational practice; and in the process, contribute to the construct’s theoretical development. It used a critical interpretative synthesis methodology (CIS) informed by grounded theory, to arrive at a conceptual framework with three ever present higher-order themes: (i) students invest in their own learning; (ii) quality teaching<i> </i>enable<i>s</i> engagement; and (iii) external environments impact engagement. The themes were supported by nine catalysts for action. The paper also discusses an emergent theme still at the margins of the literature. While many established understandings of engagement persist, some changes are emergent.</p> <br>