Thinking of doing a doctorate? : Reflections from a Tertiary Learning Advisor perspective

This article considers the desirability of the doctorate for a tertiary learning advisor (TLA), explains the process and experience of doctoral study, and affirms how doctoral study can enhance the effectiveness of a TLA in developing students’ academic literacies. Effectiveness relates not only to the pedagogical relationship between a TLA and students, but to enhanced visibility and credibility of the TLA and their team within their institution. But what is the doctoral journey actually like? This article will be of interest to curious individuals who may have wondered what the doctorate involves in terms of time and commitment, and whether the benefits outweigh the costs. This article seeks to demystify the process and encourage neophyte researchers who may be considering a qualitative project. Using an autoethnography approach, I take as a case study my own doctoral journey, touching on my initial motivation and sharing candid insights on the challenges and milestones as I perceived them. These insights are shared through a series of brief narratives and reflections, with practical advice offered for each stage of the journey.

The relational navigator: a pedagogical reframing of widening educational participation for care-experienced young people

Young people in state care not only lose support, usually at 18 years of age, but also experience unequal participation in post-secondary education. This has raised concern about the importance of widening participation (WP) for care-experienced young people (CEYP). However, CEYP are often institutionally stigmatised and this could be worsened by WP interventions that are framed by deficit discourses. Weaving together social pedagogies and social justice theories, the article aims to reframe WP away from deficit discourses through recognition of the systemic, structural and cultural inequalities that most CEYP must navigate to access formal education. We introduce the concept of the relational navigator, in which a pedagogical relationship enables the navigator to ‘pilot’ through complex systems and transitional processes in collaboration with, and through ‘walking alongside’, the CEYP with respect to their lived contexts and experiences. This article draws from the reflections of WP navigators situated in two small-scale WP projects, one in an English museum and the other in an Australian university. Our analysis of the reflections of the WP project navigators is offered as a preliminary exploration of the potential the relational navigator as a way to shift deficit discourses and work towards a reframing of WP through a social pedagogical perspective.

Change Life to Online: Pedagogical Relationship in Pandemic Time

Suddenly, the distance education system, which had been created to reach audiences traditionally without access to on-site teaching offers, became the norm. Teachers and Schools had to face this important question from day to night: how to continue to educate, share knowledge, help students and motivate them in the construction of knowledge? The purpose of this communication is to reflect on the effects of the schools closure, due to pandemic, on the pedagogical practices of teachers, namely on the pedagogical relationship. 59 Portuguese teachers of basic and secondary education were questioned, in a casual sample, but diversified in terms of the subjects they teach.The data obtained allow to conclude that despite all the constraints, the pedagogical relationship was maintained and even came out reinforced from the confinement experience.

‘STRANGE’ RHETORIC AND HOMERIC RECEPTION IN AELIUS ARISTIDES’ EMBASSY SPEECH TO ACHILLES (OR. 52)

This article argues that Aelius Aristides adapts the word atopos (‘strange’, ‘out of place’) as figured speech in his Embassy Speech to Achilles, meaning something that is either illogical according to rhetorical topoi or inconsistent with the text of Homer's Iliad. By doing so, he not only expands the semantic range of atopos but also comments on the rhetorical, intertextual, and pedagogical relationship between oratory and the Homeric tradition.

Encuentros y desencuentros en la relación pedagógica durante la práctica profesional en preescolar

El proceso de formación que viven los estudiantes normalistas al insertarse en los contextos reales donde ejercerán la tarea docente, conlleva establecer relaciones con sujetos que pueden contribuir mediante tutoría o acompañamiento, en una forma de ser docente. En el contexto de las prácticas profesionales en la Licenciatura en Educación Preescolar, los estudiantes se relacionan con docentes en servicio quienes ejercen el papel de tutores y de los cuales se espera apoyo en la formación inicial mediante observaciones, orientaciones, sugerencias que guien a los futuros docentes, sin embargo para que esto suceda se debe construir entre ambos una relación pedagógica. Las ideas que se exponen en este artículo son resultado de un proceso de investigación titulada Relaciones pedagógicas: docentes en servicio y estudiantes normalistas en el contexto de las prácticas profesionales en preescolar. Esta investigación es de corte cualitativo y entiende la relación pedagógica como lugar de encuentro en el que el aprendizaje se construye entre los sujetos. El objetivo es comprender la experiencia de formación que subyace en el estudiante normalista a partir de las relaciones pedagógicas que establece con el docente titular pues como algunos interesados en el tema exponen, convertirse en profesor puede ser una tarea compleja. Abstract The training process that normalista students [Teacher, preschool and elementary level] experience, when actively participating in real contexts as teachers, leads to the establishment of relationships with individuals who contribute through tutoring or accompaniment on their way of becoming a teacher. In the context of their professional practices in a Preschool Bachelor’s Degree program, students interact with in-service teachers who act as tutors and, which are expected to lend support during their initial training by means of observations, orientation, recommendations that may guide these future teachers; nevertheless, so this may happen, a pedagogical relationship must be developed between the two. The ideas presented in this article are a result of an investigative process titled “Pedagogical Relationship: in-service teachers and normal students in a professional practice context in preschool”. This is qualitative, and understands the pedagogical relationship as a gathering point where the integration of learning is constructed between the individuals. The objective is one of comprehending the formation underlined in normalista students in basis of their pedagogical relationship that they establish with in-service teachers, and, as some interested groups state, becoming a teacher can be a complex undertaking.

Ethical Issues in Higher Education Pedagogy

This article proposes thinking of a higher education pedagogy called into question by ethics. In particular, the focus is on two significant moments in the life of a university student: the decision to begin an undergraduate course of studies and the decision to continue and/or resume graduate studies, specifically, doctoral training. To this end, the specificity of pedagogy is defined as an “exercise of reflection” and as “accompaniment,” and on the basis of this conception, it is called into question by ethics. Several authors shed light on some ethical matters from the perspective of education philosophy in order to explore and challenge teaching practices, with a view to welcoming and hosting students in their diversity, that is, accepting “otherness.” This idea is summarized in the figure of a “host professor” capable of building a pedagogical relationship that will accompany the students’ learning processes. The university teaching practice is problematized by posing questions rather than providing answers or closed statements that prescribe an “ought to be” model of professor. Thus, these open questions are intended to encourage university professors to reflect on how to improve their pedagogical relationship called into question by ethics from a contemporary perspective.

O movimento como porta de acesso para a aprendizagem (Movement as an access door for learning)

Este ensaio teórico, de cunho bibliográfico objetivou refletir, com base nos pressupostos da neurociência, a importância do movimento e sua relação pedagógica com a Educação Física na Educação Infantil. Como resultados evidenciou-se que os processos de aprendizagem, provocados pelas vivências motoras diversificadas nas aulas de Educação Física, estimulam a criação e as interações entre as redes neurais, propiciando às crianças uma formação integral e significativa com reflexos nas demais etapas da educação formal. Depreende-se que uma estimulação motora organizada aproveitando as janelas de aprendizagem podem trazer benefícios para a vida de forma geral, potencializando as demais aprendizagens. Abstract: This theoretical essay, of a bibliographic nature, based on the assumptions of neuroscience, the importance of the movement and its pedagogical relationship with Physical Education in Early Childhood Education. As results it was evidenced how the learning processes, provoked by diversified motor experiences in physical education classes, stimulate the creation and interactions between neural networks, providing children with an integral and significant education with reflexes in the other stages of formal education. It can be insated that an organized motor stimulation taking advantage of learning windows can bring benefits to life in general, enhancing other learning.

The Academic Supervisor of Higher Education Students’ Final Projects: A Gatekeeper of Quality?

The production and presentation for public discussion of an end-of-programme project, thesis or dissertation are unavoidable elements for the conclusion of academic training in study programmes of various levels, namely bachelor’s, master’s and PhD. Although these end-of-programme projects may take on various forms, as well as different levels of demand, supervision in the production of these projects is one of the critical elements for their success. This article aims to analyse the supervision process, examining the supervision strategies that faculty members may mobilise in their role as academic supervisors. To this end, the authors carried out a bibliographic collection, which made it possible to substantiate the proposals set out throughout this piece of research. The results allow concluding that, to be effective and efficient, supervision strategies need to consider, as a basic assumption, that this is a pedagogical relationship, with asymmetric powers between the supervisor(s) and the student(s), in which it is paramount to acknowledge the different duties of each party. Furthermore, this relationship entails the need for flexibility on the part of the supervisor, taking into account both the characteristics of the supervisor and of the work designed and the development of the entire process, which may motivate and involve several supervision strategies in the same supervision over time/process. This whole dynamic takes place in a context where it seems important to (re)think the final product of the academic supervision process. Received: 30 October 2020 / Accepted: 3 December 2020/ Published: 17 January 2021