Attunement as a Pedagogical Starting Point

For many teachers, the value of pedagogical reflection is missing from practice. Rational educational approaches that prioritize judging and measuring students overshadow the relational dimension of teaching. Our study investigated this relational gap to explore more fully teachers’ attunement to the child as a unique person. We examined lived experiences of six teachers pedagogically engaged with children (K–12) participating in an active outdoor living program. The program aimed to develop a youth network of friends, nurturing positive self-esteem and youth leadership. Using a phenomenological method, we facilitated open-ended interviews to show teachers’ pedagogical awareness through hermeneutic conversations. We present the data as three anecdotes representing a synthesis of teacher reflection, writing, and on-going conversation. Our findings reveal the importance of being-in-time with children as teachers relate pedagogical moments with children learning outdoors. Through attunement as the flexibility to adapt educational challenges and approaches to suit the moment and uniqueness of the child, teachers became careful observers, allowing students to be children without the competing tensions of institutional expectations.

Sleep as Homework and Engagement in Rehabilitation

In today’s push for shorter and quicker hospitalisations, everyday life often becomes a place of rehabilitation for people after they undergo surgical procedures. In order for hospitals to manage shortened periods of admission and to facilitate post-operative rehabilitation, a patient‘s active engagement has become a central element to clinical treatment and care in Denmark. For example, in the recovery from orthopedic surgery, sleep becomes a type of "homework" assignment that is a vital element of the patient‘s rehabilitation trajectory. Building on the theoretical concept of ‘engagement’ developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (2005), we examine the patient‘s relation to sleep as part of recovery; we refer to this as ‘sleep engagement.’ In particular, we analyze sleep as part of an institutional pedagogy in rehabilitation, and we ask how this pedagogy mobilizes rehabilitation for older patients after they have been admitted to the hospital for an orthopedic surgical procedure. Using ethnographic material, our analysis leads to a discussion of institutional expectations for what it means to be engaged in one's own patient trajectory. The article presents three results: 1) Expectations of sleep as an institutionally defined homework assignment are fulfilled through the establishment of the ‘rehabilitable and non rehabilitable body’; 2) As an active attempt to mobilize resources in rehabilitation, patient sleep engagement becomes part of a historical and contextual nexus; and 3) Institutional sleep potential creates new points of ambivalence—on the one hand, sleep is an optimization-promoting requirement in order to exercise while, on the other hand, the midday nap reflects an outdated view of old age that opposes an active lifestyle perspective.

Westminster Regained: the Applicability of the Westminster System for Executive Power in India, Ceylon and New Zealand After Independence

<p>This thesis investigates the applicability of the Westminster system for the sovereign executives of India, Ceylon and New Zealand. These three countries became independent in the late 1940s and though individually having different contexts share constitutional and institutional resemblances, thanks to their Westminster legacy, that allows a valuable and original triangular study. The thesis analyses the crucial first decade of independence to assess the events, decisions and political environment of these New Westminsters and how the local executives adapted and reacted to the Westminster system in this constitutionally nascent era. This thesis will examine and compare the three case studies from a common theoretical approach. Firstly, each country’s cultural background and conditions will be analysed to comprehend not only the context in which Westminster functions, but also more importantly to understand the exercise of power available within the localised social and political arena. The cultural conditions are crucial since they impact directly on the constitutional and political exercise of Westminster executive power and give an invaluable insight into how the ambiguous and flexible tenets of Westminster were interpreted in local contexts. Secondly, the concept of horizontal accountability and delegative democracy will be tested in the New Westminsters to see how well the purported checks and balances of the Westminster model operate on the executive level in the crucial nation building era. Prime Ministers are unquestionably important, but how well the Cabinet and the Governor-General (or constitutional President) operate as actors of accountability and how well all three actors conform to the Westminster cultural and institutional expectations of their office is also highly relevant. The actions and inactions of these executive actors of this early era are fundamental to the future functions and expectations of their offices. Finally, there will be an event or issue selected during this decade, which has path dependent resonance, since it would in future become critical to the operation or complexion of the country. Often this event or issue had not yet been fully appreciated, but had been allowed to develop through the employment of Westminster flexibility and power demonstrating the importance of this critical juncture period. The adaptable Westminster system was an essential element in the political development of these countries.</p>

Westminster Regained: the Applicability of the Westminster System for Executive Power in India, Ceylon and New Zealand After Independence

<p>This thesis investigates the applicability of the Westminster system for the sovereign executives of India, Ceylon and New Zealand. These three countries became independent in the late 1940s and though individually having different contexts share constitutional and institutional resemblances, thanks to their Westminster legacy, that allows a valuable and original triangular study. The thesis analyses the crucial first decade of independence to assess the events, decisions and political environment of these New Westminsters and how the local executives adapted and reacted to the Westminster system in this constitutionally nascent era. This thesis will examine and compare the three case studies from a common theoretical approach. Firstly, each country’s cultural background and conditions will be analysed to comprehend not only the context in which Westminster functions, but also more importantly to understand the exercise of power available within the localised social and political arena. The cultural conditions are crucial since they impact directly on the constitutional and political exercise of Westminster executive power and give an invaluable insight into how the ambiguous and flexible tenets of Westminster were interpreted in local contexts. Secondly, the concept of horizontal accountability and delegative democracy will be tested in the New Westminsters to see how well the purported checks and balances of the Westminster model operate on the executive level in the crucial nation building era. Prime Ministers are unquestionably important, but how well the Cabinet and the Governor-General (or constitutional President) operate as actors of accountability and how well all three actors conform to the Westminster cultural and institutional expectations of their office is also highly relevant. The actions and inactions of these executive actors of this early era are fundamental to the future functions and expectations of their offices. Finally, there will be an event or issue selected during this decade, which has path dependent resonance, since it would in future become critical to the operation or complexion of the country. Often this event or issue had not yet been fully appreciated, but had been allowed to develop through the employment of Westminster flexibility and power demonstrating the importance of this critical juncture period. The adaptable Westminster system was an essential element in the political development of these countries.</p>

What Does It Mean to Be a Clinical Track Faculty Member in Public Health? A Survey of Clinical Track Faculty Across the United States

Objectives The clinical professor track has expanded and reflects a trend toward hiring non–tenure-track faculty in public health; however, little is known about this track. We documented characteristics of clinical faculty at US schools of public health. Methods We surveyed clinical faculty at Council on Education for Public Health–accredited schools of public health in the United States in 2019, identified via each school’s website. We invited faculty (n = 264) who had the word clinical in their title (ie, apparently eligible faculty), had a working email address, and were not authors of this article to provide information about their rank, degree credentials, expectations for teaching, service, research and practice, and promotion criteria at their institution. In addition, we used open-ended responses to explain and contextualize quantitative data. Results Of 264 apparently eligible faculty surveyed, 88 (33.3%) responded. We included 81 eligible clinical faculty in our final sample, of whom 46 (56.8%) were assistant professors and 72 (88.9%) had a terminal degree; 57 of 80 (71.3%) had an initial contract of ≤2 years or no contract. Most clinical faculty listed service (96.2%), teaching (95.0%), and student advising/mentoring (86.3%) as duties; fewer clinical faculty reported research (55.0%), practice (33.8%), or clinic (7.5%) duties. Only 37.1% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that promotion policies for clinical track faculty were clear. Conclusions If most clinical faculty are at the lowest academic rank, with short contracts and unclear expectations, it will be difficult for clinical faculty to advance and challenging for schools of public health to benefit from this track. Clear institutional expectations for scope of work and promotion may enhance the contribution of clinical faculty to schools of public health and help define this track.

‘Use your words’: Vocalization and moral order in an oral preschool classroom for deaf or hard-of-hearing children

This ethnographic study examines deaf or hard-of-hearing children's socialization in an oral classroom, a setting designed to promote spoken language as the primary mode of communication. Drawing from nine months of observations, I describe how the meanings assigned to children's vocalizations create a system of values and judgements that organizes and regulates classroom behavior. Specifically, vocalization itself is oriented to as a moral practice that is necessary for the mutual understanding and accomplishment of classroom activities. Informed by ethnomethodological and language-socialization perspectives, I illustrate how participants co-construct a local moral order wherein students are held accountable for ‘using their words’ to perform social actions. Analyses discuss three interactional contexts where moral issues are routinely constructed as contingent on and resolvable through vocalization—children's help-seeking, children's disputes, and negotiations of classroom participation—thereby shaping children's understanding of language use and reflecting broader institutional expectations and ideology regarding oral communication. (Moral order, preschool children, socialization)*

Unethical practices within medical research and publication – An exploratory study

The data produced by the scientific community impacts on academia, clinicians, and the general public; therefore, the scientific community and other regulatory bodies have been focussing on ethical codes of conduct. Despite the measures taken by several research councils, unethical research, publishing and/or reviewing behaviours still take place. This exploratory study considers some of the current unethical practices and the reasons behind them and explores the ways to discourage these within research and other professional disciplinary bodies. These interviews/discussions with PhD students, technicians, and academics/principal investigators (PIs) (N=110) were conducted mostly in European higher education institutions including UK, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic and Netherlands.Through collegiate discussions, sharing experiences and by examining previously published/reported information, authors have identified several less reported behaviours. Some of these practices are mainly influenced either by the undue institutional expectations of research esteem or by changes in the journal review process. These malpractices can be divided in two categories relating to (a) methodological malpractices including data management, and (b) those that contravene publishing ethics. The former is mostly related to “committed bias”, by which the author selectively uses the data to suit their own hypothesis, methodological malpractice relates to selection of out-dated protocols that are not suited to the intended work. Although these are usually unintentional, incidences of intentional manipulations have been reported to authors of this study. For example, carrying out investigations without positive (or negative) controls; but including these from a previous study. Other methodological malpractices include unfair repetitions to gain statistical significance, or retrospective ethical approvals. In contrast, the publication related malpractices such as authorship malpractices, ethical clearance irregularities have also been reported. The findings also suggest a globalised approach with clear punitive measures for offenders is needed to tackle this problem.

Brazil is my cousin, the U.S. has parks: Children’s construction of Brazil and the United States in a bilingual education program

Drawing from a 3-year ethnographic project in one elementary school in the United States, this article examines how a group of 43 first graders perceived and constructed Brazil and the U.S. during a drawing and writing activity in their bilingual (Portuguese-English) classroom. The majority of the participating children (81.4%) either migrated from Brazil to the U.S. or were born in the U.S. of Brazilian parents. Data analysis reveals that Brazil was frequently portrayed as an idyllic landscape that included several relatives and friends and a range of activities with loved ones, while the U.S. involved immediate family members, material goods, and places for leisure. Grounded in a relational understanding of place and placemaking, we argue that the children engaged in a range of place-based moves to construct Brazil and the United States during the activity. These acts of placemaking included evocations of transnational memories, ongoing activities and aspirations, social relationships, and local institutional expectations, particularly the school curriculum and teachers’ discourse about Brazil. The findings suggest that immigrant children’s construction of place is multifaceted, dynamic, and situated.

Interculturality in Interfaith Dialogue

The study of interfaith dialogues stands to gain from a discourse analysis approach towards interculturality, given how, as a concept, interculturality emphasises non-essentialist identities and cultures in deep inter-subjective engagement. Such an approach allows researchers to examine interfaith dialogues as activities where the melding and blending of identity and cultural resources are actions directed towards various accomplishments, constrained by the institutional expectations of how dialogues are done. This article proposes using an analytic tool which draws upon 'membership categorisation devices' (from ethnomethodology) as specific 'mental space' conceptual packages (from cognitive linguistics), and takes a more telescopic view of how as conceptual packages, these devices interact in 'mental space conceptual integration' or 'conceptual blends' (from cognitive linguistics). One excerpt of a short conversation between a facilitator of an interfaith seminar and a Muslim Imam (religious teacher) is analysed in-depth.

A Qualitative Study of Student Expectations of Online Faculty Engagement

Institutions offering online courses and degrees often develop requirements for faculty-to-student interactions; yet, these requirements may not align student preferences for faculty engagement. This chapter expanded the work on an earlier study by Shaw, Clowes, and Burrus, “A Comparative Typology of Student and Institutional Expectations of Online Faculty.” The current study included a new sampling of 57 students across two institutions focused on their experiences in online courses. Using the original typology as a lens, results were grouped into themes including substantive feedback, timeliness, and course expectations. Recommendations for further study include conducting a quantitative study of the relationship between faculty outcomes and student satisfaction after implementing student performance expectations.