Online Scientific Volunteering: the technological immersion for the co-construction of knowledge, employability, entrepreneurship and innovation in a logic of inclusion

“We all have something to learn and something to share” is the motto of this project, through which we aim to assess the impact of a multilingual platform which combines and makes the most of the potentials of digital environments and favours inclusion, in the co-construction of knowledge in learning/practice, in employability, entrepreneurism and innovation. In this article we will introduce an ongoing project which is founded on the principle of openness to the research community. Its philosophy is Online Scientific Volunteering for the co-construction of knowledge about learning best practices. The platform that will emerge from the project will be open access. The academic community, whether national or international, can contribute with content and knowledge to the platform, through interaction and discussions around relevant and emerging topics. The community may also exploit, without encumbrance, the contents of the platform for their own benefit. This way students and scientific expertise can share in a common knowledge space, and together build a comprehensive knowledge base.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Entre lo virtual y lo real: la tecnologia y la ciudad como una oportunidad y un desafio para la educación del futuro

We live immersed in a world that pulsates with the transforming rhythm of the communications ecosys-tem and with multiple interfaces between the virtual and the real time. Each individual is increasingly influenced by new technologies (information and communication systems) and globalization, where education plays a vital important sense. It is a world that becomes emancipated by the designation of the future world and imposes geography free of spatial patterns but instead uses time patterns. It is a geography where cities are transformed into events and technologies into time with interfaces between the virtual and real, which aims the ubiquitous to answer to the dreams of happiness. Within this scenario, the city fulfils in the imaginary of the education of the future a place of participatory opportunity for all individuals (regardless of age) in entrepreneurship, social inclusion, in order to live in harmony with each other and with quality of life. The city presents itself as the protagonist of education of the future, driven by technology, believing to be able to counteract the marginalization, the development of ghettos, uncritical identities, emptiness generated by the loneliness, alienation, poverty, violence and exclusion. The city presents itself as able to participate in the adaptive development of new lifestyles that arise within the demand of the knowledge society, even when technologized.Vivimos inmersos en un mundo que pulsa al ritmo del transformador ecosistema de comunicaciones y con interfaces múltiples entre el tiempo real y el virtual. Cada individuo es cada vez más influenciado por las nuevas tecnologías (sistemas de información y comunicación) y por la globalización, donde la educación juega un sentido de vital importancia. Es un mundo que se ha emancipado en la designación de un mundo del futuro a imponer a nosotros una geografía libre de los patrones espaciales para imponer los temporales. Se trata de una geografía donde las ciudades se transforman en hechos y las tecnologías en tiempo con las interfaces entre lo virtual y lo real, que quieren el ubicuo para responder a los sueños de felicidad. En este escenario, la ciudad ocupa en imaginario de la educación del futuro un lugar de oportunidades compartidas por todas las personas (Sin importar la edad) en el espíritu empresarial, en la inclusión social, con el fin de vivir en armonía unos con otros, con calidad de vida. La ciudad se presenta como protagonista de la educación del futuro, apalancada por las tecnologías, a creerse capaz de contrariar la marginalidad, el desarrollo de guetos, identidades acríticas, vacíos generados por la soledad, la alienación, la pobreza, la violencia, la exclusión. Se presenta hábil para participar en el desarrollo adaptativo de los nuevos estilos de vida que van surgiendo en la demanda de la sociedad del conocimiento, inclusive si tecnologizada

English language in rural Malaysia: situating global literacies in local practices

This paper claims that underlying the naturalisation of teaching and learning of English in the Malaysian education system are ideological pressures and political dogmas, often emerging from colonial, urban/rural and even local ethnic conflicts and hierarchies. It suggests therein lie the inherent difficulties of teaching and learning English in rural communities in Malaysia. Three paradigms frame this view in the paper: the overarching view of literacy as a situated and variable social process; the use of an ethnographic perspective in investigating English language and literacy education in Malaysia; the stance on the need for Malaysians to acquire English as an additive rather than as a deficit philosophy

Global Citizenship in Foreign Language Education

In light of increasing globalization, this collection makes the case for global citizenship education as a way forward for transforming foreign language learning and teaching to better address current and future global challenges in times of unprecedented change.　 The volume maps a multi-dimensional approach within foreign language pedagogy to take up the challenge of ""educating the global citizen"". Drawing on sociocultural, pedagogical, cosmopolitan, digital, and civic-minded perspectives, the book explores the challenges in constructing epistemological frameworks in increasingly global environments, the need for developing context-sensitive educational practices, the potential of linking up with work from related disciplines, and the impact of these considerations on different educational settings. The collection reflects an international range of voices, attuned to global and local nuances, to offer a holistic compilation of conceptual innovations to showcase the relevance of global citizenship issues in foreign language education and encourage future research. This book will be of interest to scholars in intercultural education, foreign language education, and language teaching, as well as policymakers and foreign language teachers

Community-Based Online Language Teaching as an “Act of Linguistic Citizenship”

‘Şexbizinî’ is mainly the designation of a Kurdish tribal confederation and has recently more and more become a designation of its language. This language is linguistically not described and, at the same time, endangered. Even in the main settlement area of Central Anatolia, it is only spoken by the generation of parents and grandparents. Nevertheless, there is a growing interest in the language by its speakers manifested in social media. This contribution investigates Facebook groups with a thematical connection to Şexbizinî. The main questions concern the function of the virtual space for the linguistic community, the development of communicative practices that can combat a language shift, and the codification of the language. The analysis is based on an online ethnography, the data consisting of a corpus of wall events, that is analyzed with regard to language use, the discursive position of Şexbizinî within the Kurdish languages, and the function of the groups with respect to social cohesion in the context of migration, as well as a questionnaire and a focus group which aimed to embed the results in a wider sociolinguistic context.‚Şexbizinî‘ ist primär die Bezeichnung einer kurdischen Stammeskonföderation; in den letzten Jahren ist Şexbizinî jedoch auch mehr und mehr zur Bezeichnung ihrer Sprache geworden. Diese ist immer noch kaum erforscht und zudem als gefährdete Sprache zu bezeichnen – denn selbst im Hauptsiedlungsgebiet Zentralanatolien wird Şexbizinî nur mehr von der Eltern- und Großelterngeneration gesprochen. Gleichzeitig ist von Seiten der SprecherInnen das Interesse am Şexbizinî neu erwacht, artikuliert unter anderem in sozialen Medien und Netzwerken. Der vorliegende Beitrag hat es sich deshalb zum Ziel gesetzt, Facebook-Gruppen näher zu betrachten, die die kurdische Sprache Şexbizinî zum Inhalt haben. Die zentrale Frage dabei ist, inwieweit sich in diesen Gruppen kommunikative Praktiken etablieren, die dem drohenden Sprachverlust begegnen. Die Analyse der Facebook-Daten basiert auf einer Online-Ethnographie, die bestimmte Userpostings (sog. ‚wall events‘) untersucht. Die Relevanz der Postings besteht erstens in der Sprachverwendung und Sprachwahl der Facebook-UserInnen, zweitens in der Art und Weise, wie das Şexbizinî innerhalb der kurdischen Sprachen diskursiv verortet wird, und drittens in der Funktion der untersuchten Facebook-Gruppen in Bezug auf sozialen Zusammenhalt in der Migration bzw. Diaspora. Zusätzlich werden von UserInnen ausgefüllte Fragebögen und eine Fokusgruppe herangezogen, um die Ergebnisse in einen weiteren soziolinguistischen Kontext einzubetten.Peer Reviewe

The Dr Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture 2018: Occupational stories from a global city

The Dr Elizabeth Casson Memorial Lecture 2018, given on June 12th 2018 at the 42nd Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists, held at the Belfast Waterfront, Belfast, UK. This lecture aims to set out the potential for the global occupational therapy profession to exchange knowledge for social transformation practice. It identifies the profession’s concern with narratives as a vehicle for a socially critical approach to occupation, which can be used to negotiate intervention and action. Drawing on examples from literature, history and service users, the paper suggests that narrative provides a means for relating the value of occupation beyond professional boundaries to capture popular imagination and demand for the profession. Examples are given of the critical discussion of the everyday impact of health inequity, and in addressing diversity both in the profession and engaging service users. My lecture concludes that occupational therapy is a global network with the population of a city, and thus represents a community that can be a vibrant voice for social transformation through occupation through a reciprocal exchange of narrative. This is a collective and dialogical process which can draw on the experiences of both southern and northern hemispheres

Crisis Translation Training Challenges Arising from New Contexts of Translation

Focused on material design and self-reflective practices, this article discusses a Crisis Translation Training pitched at master-level translation and interpreting students, developed within the research activities carried out for the INTERACT International Crisis Translation Network. The course was designed to enable them to develop a broader skillset in support of multilingual crisis settings. The learning objectives underpinning the materials address training lacunae in enabling linguists to be involved in relief operations (Federici, 2016; O’Brien, 2016). The authors perceive the complementary skills as crucial in the development of language mediation services assisting linguists operating in such zones of liminality as are crisis settings. Multilingual communication in crisis includes professional forms of translation, signing, and interpreting, as well as forms of intercultural mediation, and social work (Drugan, 2017). Emergencies and prolonged crises have an impact on the communicative dynamics among international relief operators, local institutions, and crisis-affected populations. The authors developed training materials to prepare students to work in crisis settings by harnessing their language competences in crisis translation as a form of community translation (Taibi and Ozolins, 2016). Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities often need support in language combinations that rarely match commercially viable combinations (Federici and Cadwell, 2018; Shackleton, 2018). This article critically reviews non-language specific Crisis Translation Training, delivered in three iterations across two sites. Reporting on the first phases of the process of material design and enhancement, the article reflects on how issues in delivery, emerging findings regarding the authentic needs of mostly untrained translators, and different pathways of delivery shaped the re-definition of the initial learning objectives and pushed towards a translator trainer approach that would suit a range of new contexts of language mediation

Harnessing Mother Tongue Diversity for Education in a Globalized Society: A literature review

Diverse cultures and languages traverse borders, including the global educational space, hence the need to create cultural and mother tongue awareness. This paper adopts a theoretical research design, in its review of some articles to discuss the best ways mother tongue diversities can be harnessed in our schools to create a universal system of education that reduces educational inequities and leads to economic growth and cohesion. This review appraises the challenges associated with harnessing mother tongue diversities, and also discusses the benefits of harnessing mother tongue diversities for the students as a preferred solution for maintaining a culturally inclusive learning environment that allows students to flourish in the educational environment by putting their mother tongue into use.Různé kultury a jazyky překračují hranice, včetně globálního vzdělávacího prostoru, a proto je třeba vytvářet povědomí o kultuře a mateřském jazyce. V tomto článku jsme aplikovali teoretický výzkumný design, v němž se na základě přehledu vybraných článků diskutuje o nejlepších způsobech, jak lze využít rozmanitosti mateřských jazyků v našich školách k vytvoření univerzálního vzdělávacího systému, který snižuje nerovnosti ve vzdělávání, vede k hospodářskému růstu a soudržnosti. Představený přehled literatury hodnotí výzvy spojené s využíváním různorodosti mateřských jazyků. Text také diskutuje o výhodách využívání diverzity mateřského jazyka jako preferovaného řešení pro udržení kulturně inkluzivního vzdělávacího prostředí