'Beddoes Raising Hell in Germany: a Tale of Student Mobility'

The English poet and dramatist Thomas Lovell Beddoes travelled to Germany in 1825 to study medicine at the University of Göttingen. His involvement with the Germania Burschenschaft movement and other radical causes, as well as his propensity for 'hell-raising', resulted in his expulsion from Göttingen in 1829, and also from Würzburg in Bavaria three years later. This article discusses Beddoes's relationship with university life and political protest, in the context of a nascent myth of rebellious Romantic youth, and explores parallels with debates about the politics in / of universities in the UK in the twenty-first century

Schneider’s Tower: An extraordinary archaeological collaboration between the Soviet Narkompros and the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft, Nokalakevi, Georgia 1930-31

Excavation at Nokalakevi in west Georgia has been undertaken as an Anglo-Georgian collaboration since 2001, building on the success of the S. Janashia Museum expedition which started in 1973. In the winter of 1930-31 the very first formal excavation of the site was also a collaborative venture, bringing together specialists from the German Reich, known as the Weimar Republic, and the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. As the Anglo-Georgian Expedition to Nokalakevi prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of the commencement of large-scale excavations, the recent discovery of archive material relating to the excavation led by Dr Alfons Maria Schneider provides a timely opportunity to reflect on the first collaboration at Nokalakevi

Christian Global Citizenship Education in Korea

This practice-based research thesis employs theological action research as a methodology to explore the intersection of Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and public theology, with a specific focus on the contributions of Protestant Christianity. The research objectives are to investigate the relevance of Christianity in public life, its potential influence on GCED within the context of South Korea, and to develop practical tools for promoting the application of Christian values in global citizenship education.GCED is widely promoted by international and national governments, but its implementation faces challenges due to diverse perspectives, historicity, and varying economic and political statuses worldwide. Bridging these differences requires dialogue among different groups to determine the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values necessary for effective engagement. Within this context, Protestant Christianity offers unique insights and contributions.Through key informant interviews with experienced practitioners in educational settings in South Korea, this practice-based research thesis gathers perspectives on integrating Protestant Christian values in GCED and the role of public theology. Employing theological action research practices, the study develops a refined study guide for Christian Global Citizenship Education, incorporating feedback from key informants to ensure its relevance and alignment with the needs of engaged faith communities. The study guide serves as a practical tool for promoting the application of Christian values in global citizenship education.Overall, this practice-based research underscores the importance of integrating biblical values drawn from reflection on scripture and perspectives from Christianity into global education efforts and encourages active participation in discussions on global citizenship. The research aims to make an original contribution to scholarship in this area by contribute by creating a nuanced approach to GCED rooted in the teachings of Protestant Christianity to bridge gaps between different regions and communities, fostering a more inclusive and nuanced approach to GCED rooted in the teachings of Protestant Christianity. The findings of this research have practical implications for educators, policymakers, and faith communities seeking to incorporate spiritual values into the global citizenship education discourse.<br/

Large language models show human-like content biases in transmission chain experiments

As the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) grows, it is important to examine if they exhibit biases in their output. Research in Cultural Evolution, using transmission chain experiments, demonstrates that humans have biases to attend to, remember, and transmit some types of content over others. Here, in five pre-registered experiments with the same methodology, we find that the LLM chatGPT-3 shows biases analogous to humans for content that is gender-stereotype consistent, social, negative, threat-related, and biologically counterintuitive, over other content. The presence of these biases in LLM output suggests that such content is widespread in its training data, and could have consequential downstream effects, by magnifying pre-existing human tendencies for cognitively appealing, and not necessarily informative, or valuable, content

Using Philosophy for/with Children in Initial Teacher Education as a pedagogical approach to challenge neoliberalism in education

The effects of the last forty years of political movement in England have been an inexorable move towards a standards-based and marketized system of teacher education (Menter et al., 2017). Current performative education policies, influenced by prevailing neoliberal tenets, have also redefined the model of a teacher, to one whose purpose is to deliver knowledge to largely passive students (Hardy &amp; Lewis, 2017; Strom &amp; Martin, 2017). This reinforces a particular conceptualisation of education, as articulated in Freire’s (1996) banking education, with knowledge seen as an objective and quantifiable content to be disseminated (Freire, 1996; Strom &amp; Martin, 2017). Likewise, this impacts on initial teacher education (ITE), as this model presumes that ITE is concerned with transferring a body of knowledge to its student teachers, that can subsequently be passed on, unmodified, to their pupils (Strom &amp; Martin, 2017). This chapter will advocate Philosophy for Children (P4wC) as a form of problem-posing critical pedagogy (Freire, 1996) to be explored with student teachers as an antidote or challenge to neoliberal educational narratives. The suggestion will be that P4wC can both encourage philosophical dialogue and critical thinking in education seminars, but also can provide a pedagogical model for student teachers to enact in the primary classroom, to challenge narrow and reductionist performative agendas, and encourage democratic teaching and learning environments

Bioarchaeological Investigation of individuals with suspected multibacillary leprosy from the mediaeval leprosarium of St. Mary Magdalen, Winchester, Hampshire, UK

Introduction. We have examined four burials from the St. Mary Magdalen mediaeval leprosarium cemetery in Winchester, UK. One, (Sk.8) was a male child, two (Sk.45 and Sk.52) were adolescent females, the fourth (Sk.512) an adult male. The cemetery was in use between the 10th to 12th centuries CE. All showed skeletal lesions of leprosy. Additionally, one of the two females (Sk.45) had lesions suggestive of multi-cystic tuberculosis and the second (Sk.52) of leprogenic odontodyplasia (LO), a rare malformation of the roots of the permanent maxillary incisors. Aims and Methodology. We have used ancient DNA testing and osteological examination of the individuals, supplemented with X-ray and micro CT scan as necessary to assess disease status.Results and Conclusions. The presence of M. leprae DNA was confirmed in both females and genotyping showed SNP-type 3I-1 strains but with clear genotypic variation. We could not confirm MTB complex DNA in the female individual SK.45. High levels of M. leprae DNA were found within the pulp cavities of four maxillary teeth from the male child (Sk.8) with LO, consistent with the theory that replication of M. leprae in alveolar bone may interfere with root formation at key stages of development. We report our biomolecular findings in these individuals and review the evidence this site has contributed to our knowledge of mediaeval leprosy.<br/

Content-based learning biases

Cognitive mechanisms which increase the likelihood that individuals will copy or adopt certain behaviours or mental representations based on the inherent characteristics (content) of those behaviours/representations, operating through processes of attention, memory, and/or transmissibility