scholarly journals Disaffection and agentic engagement: ‘Redesigning’ activities to enable authentic self-expression

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 456-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Henry ◽  
Cecilia Thorsen

Demotivation (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011) and non-participation (Norton, 2001) characterize negative responses to classroom practice of a generally chronic nature. In this article, focus is directed to negativity that emerges within the context of a particular language developing activity, and which can be understood as a situated response to the activity’s demands. In conceptualizing negative responses at the activity level, disaffection – the negative face of engagement – is a construct of central importance. Drawing on data from a large-scale ethnographic project in secondary English classrooms in Sweden, in this exploratory case study disaffection (Skinner, 2016) is examined in the context of two language developing activities. Analyses reveal that disaffection can transform into active engagement, and that when called upon to perform an inauthentic identity, students can ‘redesign’ activities in ways that enable them to act authentically.

2020 ◽  
pp. 102831532093232
Author(s):  
Pilar Garcés ◽  
Robert O’Dowd

Virtual exchange (VE) is an educational practice that involves the engagement of groups of learners in extended periods of online intercultural interaction and collaboration with international peers as an integrated part of their educational programs and under the guidance of educators and/or facilitators. Despite more than 20 years of research and recent large-scale initiatives such as Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange, this approach remains relatively unknown and often misunderstood in international education. Based on the qualitative and quantitative data of an Erasmus+ KA3 European Policy Experiment, which brought together practitioners, researchers, and ministerial policy makers from five European countries and autonomous regions, this article examines the challenges involved in implanting and upscaling an innovative practice such as VE in university internationalization practices. A case study from a Spanish regional autonomy, which took part in the project, is used to highlight barriers to take-up and integration at classroom, institutional, and policy levels. The data also provide a clear illustration of how an international practice such as VE can gain recognition and support though the coordination of bottom-up and top-down initiatives.


1996 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Halpin ◽  
Barbara Herrmann ◽  
Margaret Whearty

The family described in this article provides an unusual opportunity to relate findings from genetic, histological, electrophysiological, psychophysical, and rehabilitative investigation. Although the total number evaluated is large (49), the known, living affected population is smaller (14), and these are spread from age 20 to age 59. As a result, the findings described above are those of a large-scale case study. Clearly, more data will be available through longitudinal study of the individuals documented in the course of this investigation but, given the slow nature of the progression in this disease, such studies will be undertaken after an interval of several years. The general picture presented to the audiologist who must rehabilitate these cases is that of a progressive cochlear degeneration that affects only thresholds at first, and then rapidly diminishes speech intelligibility. The expected result is that, after normal language development, the patient may accept hearing aids well, encouraged by the support of the family. Performance and satisfaction with the hearing aids is good, until the onset of the speech intelligibility loss, at which time the patient will encounter serious difficulties and may reject hearing aids as unhelpful. As the histological and electrophysiological results indicate, however, the eighth nerve remains viable, especially in the younger affected members, and success with cochlear implantation may be expected. Audiologic counseling efforts are aided by the presence of role models and support from the other affected members of the family. Speech-language pathology services were not considered important by the members of this family since their speech production developed normally and has remained very good. Self-correction of speech was supported by hearing aids and cochlear implants (Case 5’s speech production was documented in Perkell, Lane, Svirsky, & Webster, 1992). These patients received genetic counseling and, due to the high penetrance of the disease, exhibited serious concerns regarding future generations and the hope of a cure.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. McMullin ◽  
A. R. Jacobsen ◽  
D. C. Carvan ◽  
R. J. Gardner ◽  
J. A. Goegan ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Lori Stahlbrand

This paper traces the partnership between the University of Toronto and the non-profit Local Food Plus (LFP) to bring local sustainable food to its St. George campus. At its launch, the partnership represented the largest purchase of local sustainable food at a Canadian university, as well as LFP’s first foray into supporting institutional procurement of local sustainable food. LFP was founded in 2005 with a vision to foster sustainable local food economies. To this end, LFP developed a certification system and a marketing program that matched certified farmers and processors to buyers. LFP emphasized large-scale purchases by public institutions. Using information from in-depth semi-structured key informant interviews, this paper argues that the LFP project was a disruptive innovation that posed a challenge to many dimensions of the established food system. The LFP case study reveals structural obstacles to operationalizing a local and sustainable food system. These include a lack of mid-sized infrastructure serving local farmers, the domination of a rebate system of purchasing controlled by an oligopolistic foodservice sector, and embedded government support of export agriculture. This case study is an example of praxis, as the author was the founder of LFP, as well as an academic researcher and analyst.


2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (7) ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
I. V. Plyushchenko ◽  
D. G. Shakhmatov ◽  
I. A. Rodin

A viral development of statistical data processing, computing capabilities, chromatography-mass spectrometry, and omics technologies (technologies based on the achievements of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) in recent decades has not led to formation of a unified protocol for untargeted profiling. Systematic errors reduce the reproducibility and reliability of the obtained results, and at the same time hinder consolidation and analysis of data gained in large-scale multi-day experiments. We propose an algorithm for conducting omics profiling to identify potential markers in the samples of complex composition and present the case study of urine samples obtained from different clinical groups of patients. Profiling was carried out by the method of liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The markers were selected using methods of multivariate analysis including machine learning and feature selection. Testing of the approach was performed using an independent dataset by clustering and projection on principal components.


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