scholarly journals Praxis and language: Teaching newly arrived migrant children to “live well in a world worth living in”

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mervi Kaukko ◽  
Jane Wilkinson

This article continues the well-established discussion of the ethics of TESOL by adopting a praxis perspective that views TESOL as holistic, ethical and moral task, rather than a technical task of delivering learning outcomes in a new language. This article is informed by the authors’ empirical research in Finnish preparatory classes, and in intensive English language schools in Australia, including interviews with teachers, students and educational leaders. Drawing on literature and this research we consider how English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EALD) and Finnish as a Second Language (F2) teaching can promote “a good life” for the individual learner and human kind.

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 622-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri Nicol Watson

Purpose This paper provides insight into the effective education of immigrant and migrant children: many of whom are classified in New York City’s public schools as English language learners. It also highlights the ways in which New York City prepares school leaders and the policies that govern their actions. Design/methodology/approach Literature review. Findings The practices of New York City’s school leaders are governed by the Chancellor’s Regulations. These comprehensive mandates consist of four components and address issues related to students in grades K-12, school-based budgets, personnel matters, and parent and community engagement. In relation to students, including those classified as immigrant, migrant, and English language learners the Chancellor’s Regulation A-101 makes it clear: children may not be refused admission to a public school because of race, color, creed, national origin, gender, gender identity, pregnancy, immigration/citizenship status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or ethnicity. Research limitations/implications Implications for future research: How can school leaders (and educational activists) continue to support and advocate for immigrant and migrant children under the presidency of Donald J. Trump. Practical implications Knowledge gleaned from this study may be of use to schools, districts, and educational leaders in the USA and abroad faced with similar demographic trends. Social implications This manuscript examined the ways in which The City University of New York prepares school leaders, the required State exams for school leaders, and the educational policies that govern the practices of New York City’s school leaders that are germane to English language learners. Originality/value This review of the literature may study may be of use to schools, districts, and educational leaders in the USA and abroad.


2008 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 307-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rixt H. Komduur ◽  
Michiel Korthals ◽  
Hedwig te Molder

Like all scientific innovations, nutrigenomics develops through a constant interplay with society. Normative assumptions, embedded in the way researchers formulate strands of nutrigenomics research, affect this interplay. These assumptions may influence norms and values on food and health in our society. To discuss the possible pros and cons of a society with nutrigenomics, we need to reflect ethically on assumptions rooted in nutrigenomics research. To begin with, we analysed a set of scientific journal articles and explicated three normative assumptions embedded in the present nutrigenomics research. First, values regarding food are exclusively explained in terms of disease prevention. Health is therefore a state preceding a sum of possible diseases. Second, it is assumed that health should be explained as an interaction between food and genes. Health is minimised to quantifiable health risks and disease prevention through food–gene interactions. The third assumption is that disease prevention by minimisation of risks is in the hands of the individual and that personal risks, revealed either through tests or belonging to a risk group, will play a large role in disease prevention. Together, these assumptions suggest that the good life (a life worth living, with the means to flourish and thrive) is equated with a healthy life. Our thesis is that these three normative assumptions of nutrigenomics may strengthen the concerns related to healthism, health anxiety, time frames and individual responsibilities for health. We reflect on these ethical issues by confronting them in a thought experiment with alternative, philosophical, views of the good life.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-129
Author(s):  
Asti Gumartifa ◽  
◽  
Indah Windra Dwie Agustiani

Gaining English language learning effectively has been discussed all years long. Similarly, Learners have various troubles outcomes in the learning process. Creating a joyful and comfortable situation must be considered by learners. Thus, the implementation of effective learning strategies is certainly necessary for English learners. This descriptive study has two purposes: first, to introduce the classification and characterization of learning strategies such as; memory, cognitive, metacognitive, compensation, social, and affective strategies that are used by learners in the classroom and second, it provides some questionnaires item based on Strategy of Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) version 5.0 that can be used to examine the frequency of students’ learning strategies in the learning process. The summary of this study explains and discusses the researchers’ point of view on the impact of learning outcomes by learning strategies used. Finally, utilizing appropriate learning strategies are certainly beneficial for both teachers and learners to achieve the learning target effectively.


2020 ◽  
pp. 026921632096759
Author(s):  
Fenella J Gill ◽  
Zahraa Hashem ◽  
Roswitha Stegmann ◽  
Samar M Aoun

Background: Provision of paediatric palliative care is complex and optimally covers meeting the individual needs of a heterogenous population of children and their parent caregivers throughout a life-limiting illness. It is unclear whether existing approaches comprehensively address parent caregivers’ needs. Aim: To examine support needs of parents caring for children with life limiting illnesses and identify specific approaches used to identify and address needs. Design: A scoping review Data sources: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL and ProQuest Central, were searched for peer reviewed English language full text research published from 2008 to 2019. Study quality appraisal was undertaken. Fourteen quantitative, 18 qualitative and 12 mixed methods studies were synthesised and themed using summative content analysis and mapped to the Parent Supportive Care Needs Framework (PSCNF). Results: Themes were communication, choice, information, practical, social, psychological, emotional and physical. Communication and choice were central and additional to domains of the PSCNF. Unmet were needs for supporting siblings, for respite care, out of hours, psychological, home and educational support. Six articles reported using instruments to identify parent carer support needs. Conclusion: Support needs of parent caregivers of children with life limiting illnesses are substantial and heterogenous. While studies report evidence of burden and distress in parent caregivers, this rarely translates into improvements in practice through the development of interventions. A systematic and regular assessment of individual parent caregiver support needs is required by using instruments appropriate to use in clinical practice to move the focus to palliative care interventions and improved services for parents.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
U Moqeem ◽  
O Mukhtar ◽  
A Abbara ◽  
S Jabbour ◽  
M Abouzeid

Abstract Background Conflicts cause mass displacement, including of healthcare workers (HCWs). Understanding experiences of HCWs over the displacement trajectory, from push factors out of conflict zones, to barriers and facilitators in transit and host countries, is key to developing support mechanisms and informing policy discussions regarding return and reintegration. Methodology We systematically reviewed 6 academic databases and grey literature using combined search terms for HCWs, displacement, conflict, and experiences to identify English-language literature documenting personal or professional experiences of HCWs displaced by conflict, published between 1945 to 2020. Open coding and thematic analysis were used to identify emerging themes. Quality appraisal was conducted. Results 25 publications from academic journals, snowballed references, and grey literature from 10 geographical contexts and various types of HCW met inclusion criteria, many from conflicts in the Middle-East. 5 themes emerged: Conflict drives displacement: HCWs fled due to direct violence and deteriorating working conditions caused by increased workload, depleting resources, workforce attrition and attacks on healthcare. Giving back: Refugee HCWs were determined to continue working but had to do so informally or by working with humanitarian agencies. Personal and professional integration in host countries: refugee HCWs overcame barriers to relicense after which they reported disadvantage in job applications due to professional gaps and discrimination; many ended up working under-qualified jobs. Psychological toll on HCWs was pronounced. Prospects on return: HCWs desired to return to their home countries but feared political instability and violence. Conclusions Policies which support HCW retention during conflict, integration into host health systems, and encourage return post-conflict must be implemented. Further research is required to understand the individual and systemic support mechanisms required. Key messages Displaced HCWs experience many personal and professional challenges. Policies that support HCWs across the displacement trajectory and support return and post-conflict system rebuilding are required.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1743-1751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Søren Ventegodt ◽  
Isack Kandel ◽  
Joav Merrick

Quality of life (QOL) has over the past decade become an important part of health science and also increased public awareness. It has become increasingly apparent that illness is closely related to the individual perception of a good life, and therefore the exploration of indicators related to quality of life appears to be of broad importance for the prevention and treatment of diseases. Identifying, which factors constitute a good life may reveal an understanding about what areas in life should be encouraged, in order to enhance the global quality of life, health, and ability. In this paper we present results from studies initiated in 1989 to examine quality of life in relation to disease. The purpose of this presentation was to assemble the results from the study carried out in the years between 1993 and 1997, examining a total of 11.500 Danes, to show the association between quality of life and a wide series of social indicators.


1996 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-364
Author(s):  
Bi‐Hwan Kim

Joseph Raz Has Long Been Well Known as a Legal philosopher and theorist of practical reason. But it is only in the last decade that he has come to be widely identified as the most prominent defender of a distinctive interpretation of the liberal tradition. Raz wholeheartedly endorses the communitarian view that the individual is a social being, who needs society to establish his/her self-identity and to gain objective knowledge of the good, rather than a self-contained subject abstracted from any specific social experience. Unlike neutralist liberals, such as Rawls and Dworkin, he rejects ‘the priority of right over the good’, stressing the interdependent relationship between right and the good. Yet he remains very much a liberal in his commitment to the value of autonomy (or freedom) and argues powerfully for the desirability (or necessity) of incommensurable plural conceptions of the good life for the well-being of people, as well as for the liberal virtue of toleration, and for their attendant liberal democratic political institutions.


Author(s):  
Elena Alekseevna Tolkacheva ◽  
Vasilisa Fedorovna Tolkacheva ◽  
Evgenii Iurevich Gurov

What should be considered and evaluated in modern technological conditions as a result of school education? What are the consequences of "informational expansion of the individual"? How digitalization affects the fundamental psychophysiological processes of personal development. Without an answer to these questions, it is impossible to talk about understanding the significance of the development of digital educational technologies. It is proposed to identify invariants of learning outcomes in school based on the psychophysiology of human development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anik Nunuk Wulyani

<p>Two important areas of professional development for teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Indonesia identified in the 2003 Law on National Education System and 2005 Law on Teachers and Lecturers are disciplinary knowledge and ICT skills. The present thesis investigates institutional and individual aspects of EFL teacher professional development (TPD) in Indonesia in relation to the development of these two areas of expertise.  Three studies were carried out. The first study measured Indonesian EFL teachers’ target language (English) proficiency as a core component of their professional knowledge and how it is maintained and developed by the teachers. EFL teachers’ language proficiency in this study was operationalised as their lexical, reading and writing proficiency and measured using the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), IELTS-like reading comprehension test and IELTS-like academic writing test, respectively. The results showed that the teachers’ length of service correlated negatively with their knowledge of academic vocabulary, as well as reading and writing proficiency, indicating issues with the outcomes of the TPD in this area. To triangulate the test results, teacher perceptions data were also gathered using questionnaires and interviews. It was found that the EFL teachers tended to overestimate their own overall English language proficiency.  The second study used a longitudinal blogging activity with the EFL teachers as a form of personal professional development that targeted their English language and ICT skills while reflecting on topics related to their professional (teaching) activities. Qualitative analysis of the blog entries of three EFL teachers suggested that the individual teachers’ blogging, critical reading and reflective writing skills were very uneven. Interviews with nine teachers and 11 educational stakeholders were then conducted to understand their views on blogging as a form of professional development. The results revealed that the perceived obstacles and drawbacks outweighed the perceived benefits of blogging as a form of personal professional development.  The third study examined Indonesian national TPD policy documents, how these policies were translated into local professional development programmes in Malang district. It was found that the needs for EFL teachers to maintain their English proficiency and ICT skills were only partially addressed in TPD policy and implementation. In addition, the interviewed teachers and stakeholders perceived the definitions, goals, administration, evaluation, benefits, and challenges of TPD differently.  Taken as a whole, the present findings show that institutional implementation of TPD policies in Indonesia needs to better target individual EFL teachers’ English proficiency and ICT skills, and that opportunities for better professional development need to be sought at both personal and institutional levels. At the individual level, self-motivation to continue learning is crucial for English language teachers who want to keep up with change and innovation in English language teaching. At the institutional level, needs analyses and environmental analyses are essential in designing programs for maintaining and developing teacher professional competency.</p>


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