In/Visible POC: Narratives of a Brown Professor in Teacher Education

In this article, I reflect on experiences of Brown (or South Asian) in/visibility in teacher education. Using an autoethnographic approach, I share reflexive personal and professional counternarratives of my experiences as a Brown person and Brown teacher-educator committed to issues of justice in the diverse context of Toronto, Canada. I explore how Brown invisibility operates in desiring recognition, insider knowings, investments in ambiguity, and relational harm and liberation. I trouble the ways in which theoretical frames open and limit experiences and expressions of Brownness, locating myself in between postcolonial and anti-colonial theorizing and notions of racial ambiguity in DesiCrit. I conclude with the importance of making visible the experiences and constructions of Brownness in faculties of education and education more broadly, as a form of solidarity that both resists Brown invisibility and exposes Brown complicity in an aspirational whiteness that maintains racial hierarchies through its invisibility.

Arguing about social distancing and family relationships

With the COVID-19 pandemic, families are having to coordinate their behaviors to face new challenges, such as negotiating the social distancing measures that the family will or will not take in their daily interaction. This study utilizes Family Communication Patterns Theory to examine conversations that young adults reported having with their family members about social distancing measures and what factors predicted the outcomes of these disagreements. A family’s level of conversation orientation and the interaction of conversation orientation and conformity orientation predicted change in relational closeness due to the argument and the perceived positivity level of predicted outcome value levels for future interaction with these family members. Additionally, level of conformity orientation predicted perceived relational harm from disagreements about social distancing.

Traditional Knowledge and Private Law

Many proponents of traditional knowledge (TK) seek legal protection comparable to the bundle of exclusive rights afforded creators of knowledge goods in the conventional intellectual property (IP) system. This chapter argues that the nature of the harm caused by such misuse differs meaningfully from the interests with which standard intellectual property law is occupied. It maps how private law claims have been applied, notably in Australia, to address TK misuse and highlights formal adherence by courts to the boundaries of private law subjects. Important aspects of the problem, such as how TK misuse disables cultural mechanisms designed to foster the production of knowledge goods for sustainable growth in Indigenous communities, while also posing a risk to cross-border scientific research important for pressing public health and environmental challenges, however remain beyond private law’s reach.The chapter identifies three types of harm that flow from the misuse of TK: relational harm, communal harm, and developmental harm. For such harms, individual private property—and common property for that matter—offers limited recourse. The chapter reflects on other private law tools that could extend to TK and that offer protection well beyond IP rights, but all are without the classic welfare limits attendant to knowledge goods under the IP system. The misalignment of harms, claims and remedies point to sui generis regimes as a more meaningful prospect for regulating TK.

6. Non-Fatal Non-Sexual Offences Against the Person

This chapter discusses a wide range of offences against the person: from an unwanted touching on an arm to a life-threatening attack. Key to the law is the right to bodily integrity: a person should not be touched against his or her wishes. This right is protected under the common law and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Topics covered include assault and battery; assault occasioning actual bodily harm; malicious wounding; wounding with intent; poisoning; racially and religiously aggravated crimes; the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; threats offences; transmitting disease; consent and assault; the true nature and extent of violent crime; the nature of an assault; objections to and reform of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861; and emotional and relational harm.

You Can Handle the Truth: Mispredicting the Consequences of Honest Communication

People highly value the moral principle of honesty, and yet, they frequently avoid being honest with others. In the present research, we explore the actual and predicted consequences of honesty in everyday life. We utilize field and laboratory experiments that feature two types of honesty interventions: 1) instructing individuals to focus on complete honesty across their interactions for a period of time, and 2) instructing individuals to engage in specific honest conversations that they frequently avoid in everyday life. In Studies 1a and 1b, we randomly assigned individuals to either be (or imagine being) honest, kind, or conscious of their communication in every conversation with every person in their life for three days. We find that people significantly mispredict the consequences of honesty: focusing on honesty (but not kindness or communication-consciousness) is more pleasurable, meaningful, socially connecting, and does less relational harm than individuals expect. We extend our investigation by examining the consequences of specific well-controlled honest conversations for both communicators and their relational partners in two preregistered laboratory experiments. In Study 2 we examine the predicted and actual consequences of honestly disclosing personal information, and in Study 3 we examine the predicted and actual consequences of honestly sharing negative feedback. Our results suggest that individuals broadly misunderstand the consequences of increased honesty because they overestimate how negatively others will react to their honesty. Overall, this research contributes to our understanding of affective forecasting processes and uncovers fundamental insights on how communication and moral values shape well-being.

6. Non-Fatal Non-Sexual Offences Against the Person

This chapter discusses a wide range of offences against the person: from an unwanted touching on an arm to a life-threatening attack. Key to the law is the right to bodily integrity: a person should not be touched against his or her wishes. This right is protected under the common law and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Topics covered include assault and battery; assault occasioning actual bodily harm; malicious wounding; wounding with intent; poisoning; racially and religiously aggravated crimes; the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; threats offences; transmitting disease; consent and assault; the true nature and extent of violent crime; the nature of an assault; objections to and reform of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861; and emotional and relational harm.

Subversive leadership and power tactics

Purpose Principals’ leadership has become a subversive activity that is carried out strategically to challenge and disrupt the status quo and resist policies and practices that are counterproductive to their work. The purpose of this paper is to reveal subversive tactics principals use in pursuit of justice and equity in schools and identify challenges and risks associated with their subversive leadership practices. Power tactics were used as a conceptual framework to guide the analysis of subversive activities by school principals. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study focuses on 18 elementary and secondary school principals from six district school boards in the Metro Vancouver area who participated in the semi-structured interviews on their practices that epitomize different tactics in response to increasing demand and accountability. Findings The power tactics identified in this study illuminate many of the dilemmas principals face in their work and demonstrate the various ways principals exercise their political acumen to “act strategically to determine which tactics to use, when, and with whom.” In exercising ethics of subversion and critique, participants are more likely to use soft, rational, and bi/multilateral rather than hard, non-rational, and unilateral power tactics. Such tendency reveals their concern about causing relational harm and shows their strategic avoidance of direct confrontation. Research limitations/implications Considering the limitations on the sample size and the research context, more research is needed to examine to what extent subversive practices are exercised and how they play out in different contexts. Originality/value The study shows that leadership involves upholding morals and values, even if this means having to use subversive practices to ensure inclusive, equitable, and just outcomes.