scholarly journals Mediating imaginaries

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-46
Author(s):  
Oliver Tafdrup
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
School Context ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Sociotechnical Imaginaries ◽  
Danish School ◽  
Educational Robots

The aim of this article is to illustrate how visions of the future—sociotechnical imaginaries— mediate and thus shape sociotechnical practices involving educational robots in a Danish school context. In the analysis I show how imaginaries are manifested both in technological artefacts, teachers’ discourse and in policy documents from political bodies such as the OECD and the Danish Agency for Digitisation (DIGST). To show this manifestation, I apply two concepts: The Science and Technology Studies (STS) concept of ‘sociotechnical imaginaries’ as formulated by Sheila Jasanoff (2015) and the concept of ‘mediation’ known from postphenomenological tradition. I develop an analytical framework based on these two concepts and coin a third — ‘symbolic mediation’ — to present and analyse a case study based on an ethnographic field study that included semi-structured interviews conducted in a Danish school setting. The case study shows how the use of the robot NAO—an educational technology—is driven by two related imaginaries that both serve as arguments for implementing and using the robot—the imaginary of the digital future and the imaginary of educational optimization.

CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES OF INDIRECT WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN HIGH SCHOOL CONTEXT

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-73
Author(s):  
Yessi Widyasari ◽  
Yella Dezas Perdani ◽  
Gita Rahmi
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
School Context ◽  
Written Feedback ◽  
Coding System ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Feedback Strategies ◽  
Problem Solvers

Indirect written feedback is crucial to be conducted since errors are unavoidable in the process of writing. However, many studies have been undertaken in university contexts. Thus, this qualitative case study was carried out to examine a teacher's indirect written feedback practices in senior high school context. The data were obtained from observations, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews through purposive sampling. The findings revealed that coded feedback was mainly used, supplemented by uncoded feedback and commentary. These imply that the coding system is effective in guiding the students to be problem solvers and independent writers. However, the teacher's inconsistency in giving codes emerged because of the use of a large number of codes. Thus, it is suggested to reduce the number of codes and provide sufficient activity to increase students' understanding of the codes. The results of the study are significant to help teachers adjust appropriate methods to teach writing. The results also give long-term benefits for the development of students' writing ability. For further research, it is important to analyze the effect of indirect written feedback strategies on the students' revisions as well as students' preferences on these strategies.

scholarly journals STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SCHOOLING: THE PATH TO ALTERNATE EDUCATION

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liane Pereira ◽  
Jennifer Lavoie
Keyword(s):  
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
School Context ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Behavioural Difficulties ◽  
Diverse Student ◽  
Eighth Grade Students ◽  
Diverse Student Population ◽  
Students With Ebd

<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 24pt 36pt;"><span style="color: #131413; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">Policies governing education in North America have given schools the responsibility of meeting the needs of a diverse student population, including those with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD). To balance their need for individualized programs with their right to inclusion in schools, students with EBD may be placed in alternate programs within a mainstream school setting. However, little is known about student experiences leading to this placement or their experiences in these programs. The purpose of this study was to explore youth’s perceptions of the factors that influenced their being placed in an alternate program for students with EBD. Six eighth-grade students participated in semi-structured interviews and created a visual map of their school trajectories. An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of the data suggested that their schooling was a tumultuous journey that contributed to their emotional, behavioural, and academic struggles, and to their placement in an alternate school program. Students described disrupted school services, lack of supports, a negative school climate, and disengaging instructional strategies as contributing to their difficulties. An understanding of the influence of school context and policy on student behaviour is necessary if we are to improve educational outcomes and properly support child and adolescent development.</span></p>

The effect of technology on learning democracy

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-336
Author(s):  
Else Lauridsen
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
School Context ◽  
Interactive Whiteboards ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Danish School ◽  
Technology In Schools

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the use of information technology in schools can influence students’ democratic comprehension. Design/methodology/approach – First, two different ideas of democracy are introduced and how these ideas are linked to cognitivistic and social constructivistic learning theories, respectively, is illustrated. Next, a case study is described, where Engeström’s mediational triangle is used for analysing how the use of interactive whiteboards (IWB) influences the teaching of democracy in a fifth-grade school class. Findings – The paper lists a set of preconditions and recommendations for a use of IWB as support for students’ experience of democracy as a way of living. Research limitations/implications – As the paper focuses on research design and development of didactical designs, future research and articles can further study the effects of the didactical designs and the democratic comprehension supported hereby. The paper is set in a Danish school context. Practical implications – It is argued that the IWB can be used as support for developing the students’ democratic comprehension by focusing on and, if necessary, changing the elements of the activity system, e.g. the rules and the roles concerning the use of the IWB. Originality/value – The paper’s linkage of democratic ideas, learning theory and information technology is relevant for researchers. Teachers can use the paper, as it offers didactical principles for using information technology as support for students’ democratic comprehension.

scholarly journals Stimuli for climate adaptation in cities: insights from Philadelphia – an early adapter

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline J. Uittenbroek ◽  
Leonie B. Janssen-Jansen ◽  
Hens A.C. Runhaar
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Entrepreneurs ◽  
Policy Fields

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify stimuli for climate adaptation in cities and more specifically to explore whether different stimuli inspire different governance approaches to climate adaptation – e.g. dedicated (adaptation as a new policy field) or mainstreaming (integrating in existing policy fields). Design/methodology/approach – For this explorative case study research, an early adapter was selected: Philadelphia (USA). By reconstructing the organization of two climate adaptation programs, the authors have identified stimuli and whether these influence the city’s governance approach. The reconstruction is based on data triangulation that consists of semi-structured interviews with actors involved in these programs, policy documents and newspaper articles. Findings – The research illustrates the importance of stimuli such as strategically framing climate adaptation within wider urban agendas, political leadership and institutional entrepreneurs. Moreover, the research reveals that it is often a combination of stimuli that triggers a governance approach and that there is a possible link between specific stimuli and governance approaches, proposing that some stimuli will trigger a dedicated approach to climate adaptation, while others initiate a mainstreaming approach. Originality/value – An in-depth understanding of stimuli of climate adaptation is currently lacking in literature, as most of the studies have focused on barriers to climate adaptation. Moreover, still little is known about what explains why certain governance approaches to climate adaptation emerge.

scholarly journals School Choice, School Culture and Social Justice: A Canadian Case Study

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ball ◽  
Darren Lund
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
School Choice ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Alternative Educational Programs ◽  
The Impact

This paper reports on findings from a case study conducted in a public school offering multiple programs of choice. A guiding purpose of the study was to analyze the impact of operating multiple programs of choice in a single school setting on the organizational and lived culture of the school. The urban Alberta school under study offered alternative educational programs in science, Mandarin Immersion, special education and “regular” programs. Multiple methods of data collection followed an ethnographic approach, and included document and policy analysis, field observations, focus groups and semi-structured interviews with administrators, parents, teachers and students from each of the programs. The results reported here focus on related themes of equity and social justice related to analyses of school choice, attending specifically to participants’ understandings of power and privilege, with policy and practice implications. Themes included social class stratifications, marginalization within advantage, perceptions of disempowerment, fragmented school identity, limitations of choice programs, and perceptions of teaching staff quality.

scholarly journals Getting personal: investigating how living with universal credit affects emotions and identities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sophia Constance Negus
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Market Society ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Impact

This thesis investigates the impacts of Universal Credit (UC) on emotions, wellbeing, identities, and the ‘self’. The findings are of growing importance as increasing numbers of people are receiving UC. Six million people now engage with a ‘violent’ system (Cooper and Whyte, 2017) which pushes people further from the labour market, society, health, and their ‘self’. UC introduced radical changes to British working-age social security, with aims to ‘simplify’ the system, reduce costs and fraud, and ‘make work pay’. Since launching in 2013, there has been growing evidence on the negative impacts of UC, yet, little is known about the impact UC has on emotions, wellbeing, identities, and the ‘self’, a gap in knowledge this thesis addresses. A geographically bound case-study was adopted using semi-structured interviews and participant-solicited diaries to investigate the diverse realities and impacts of UC. The analytical framework utilises several concepts and theories, drawing upon Elias (1994) as it is argued UC is a ‘civilising offensive’ (Powell, 2013), and Goffman (1997/2007) to explore the impacts on identities. This thesis provides empirical contributions to knowledge surrounding the extent and severity of the impacts of UC on emotions and the ‘self’. The research found that harm inflicted from UC carries serious consequences and the experiences indicate a systemic erosion of people, lives, and possibilities. The findings demonstrate how UC is experienced as dehumanizing and destabilising of emotions, wellbeing and the ‘self’. It provides important insights into how people respond to UC and the significant resources spent on ‘self-management’ as individuals attempt to preserve their identities which are under threat from institutional scrutiny, stigma and increasing poverty. Therefore, this thesis provides an important contribution to knowledge surrounding the corrosive nature of UC.

scholarly journals Co-production and the third sector: A comparative study of England and France

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin McMullin
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Production Theory ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Third ◽  
Documentary Analysis

This thesis explores co-production between citizens and third sector professionals in England and France. I focus on five community regeneration organisations in Sheffield, England, and five in Lyon, France, followed by an analysis of comparator organisations in two further sectors of activity – parents’ organisations, and projects to reduce older people’s loneliness. The research is based on 57 semi-structured interviews, as well as event observations and documentary analysis. I employ an analytical framework of institutional logics to explore the ways in which the rules, practices and narratives of the case study organisations are specific to their city and national contexts and how these in turn drive and shape co-production practices.The study finds that while the Sheffield organisations are characterised by an assimilation of the state, community and market logics, the Lyon organisations demonstrate a blend of a ‘Napoleonic state’ logic, and a ‘local solidarity’ (rather than community) logic. These different combinations of logics illuminate two approaches to co-production. In France, co-production is informed by notions of citizenship, solidarity and participative democracy, leading to a greater focus on citizen involvement in organisational governance and greater influence of rules as an enabler and constraint to co-production. In Sheffield, co-production is seen as a way to improve communities, services and outcomes, and we therefore see more pragmatic attention to co-design and co-delivery activities. This thesis provides an important contribution both to co-production theory as well as to policy and practice, by demonstrating some of the cultural and contextual subjectivity of co- production, which has been overlooked in previous studies. In addition, employing institutional theory to study co-production enables me to produce evidence of meso and macro level factors that influence co-production behaviour.

scholarly journals Upscaling Urban Recycled Water Schemes: An Analysis of the Presence of Required Governance Conditions in the City of Sabadell (Spain)

Water ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep Pinyol Alberich ◽  
Farhad Mukhtarov ◽  
Carel Dieperink ◽  
Peter Driessen ◽  
Annelies Broekman
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Policy Coordination ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Recycled Water ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Public Forum ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The City

Cleaning wastewater and using it again for secondary purposes is a measure to address water scarcity in urban areas. However, upscaling of recycled water schemes is challenging, and little is known about the governance conditions which are required for this. This paper addresses this knowledge gap. Based on a review of governance literature we suggest that five governance conditions are necessary for a successful upscaling of recycled water schemes: (1) policy leadership, (2) policy coordination, (3) availability of financial resources, (4) awareness of a problem, and (5) the presence of a public forum. We applied these concepts in a case study on the upscaling of a recycled water scheme in Sabadell, Spain. We reviewed policy documents, conducted a set of 21 semi-structured interviews, and attended two policy meetings about the subject. Our results suggest that Sabadell meets the required conditions for upscaling reused water to a certain extent. However, a public forum is not well-developed. We discuss the implications of this and conclude with some suggestions for future research and some lessons for other cities that plan to upscale their recycled water schemes.

Access to Justice 4 Known or Potential Extremists?

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 94-115
Author(s):  
Quirine Eijkman ◽  
Josien Roodnat
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Municipal Authority ◽  
Professional Perspective ◽  
Violent Extremism

This article discusses, from the local professional perspective, access to justice for person-specific interventions to prevent or counter (violent) extremism in Europe. Using a Dutch case study it focusses on legal protection for hand-tailored interferences that are part of a wider-ranging counter-terrorism policy. While the so-called person-specific interventions, carried out by professionals, target designated high-risk individuals and groups, it is primarily the municipal authority that coordinates these criminal –, administrative – or social based measures. Furthermore, although researchers and human rights advocates have repeatedly sounded the alarm over access to justice for those affected, little research has been done into how those responsible for implementation perceive the necessity of legal protection. Also, the potential side-effects such as executive arbitrariness are modestly reflected in the literature. Henceforth, by reviewing policy documents and conducting semi-structured interviews, this exploratory study concludes that as far as legal protection for hand-tailored interferences are concerned, local professionals have faith in the checks and balances of the criminal justice system. Yet from their perspective this was less self-evident in cases of administrative – or social measures. Therefore, one may wonder if legal protections for person-specific interventions that deal with (potential) extremists are sufficient in practice.

scholarly journals Softening the hierarchy: the role of student agency in building learning organisations

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Hill
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Student Agency ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of student agency in building learning organisations (LOs) based on a case study of a student learning community (SLC) model that incorporates learning-centred dialogue between students and teachers. Design/methodology/approach The case study adopted a multi-phase design involving multiple perspectives. Data were collected using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews following student and teacher involvement in two classroom events and subsequent dialogic encounters. Findings Key insights emerged demonstrating the value of the SLC model in creating conditions that support LOs by enabling pedagogical spaces where students and teachers learn together, as well as the need for this model to encompass marginal voices and negotiate alternative approaches to accountability. Research limitations/implications This small-scale case study was based on a purposive sample of 10 teachers and 14 students from a single school setting in England. Therefore, there are limitations in generalising results to other contexts. Furthermore, the use of self-report measures to examine this case limits analysis of the case study conditions. Practical implications The investigation provides insight into the implementation of this model through a consideration of teacher–student relationships, guidelines for dialogic encounters, training in student-led lessons and observations, as well as factors concerning the inclusivity and authenticity of this approach. Originality/value Growing interest in student agency emphasises the importance of further investigation into initiatives aiming to develop meaningful student involvement. This paper provides new perspectives on the insights generated by the SLC model in order to support the development of student agency models in other schools.

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