Leading change from different shores: The challenges of contextualizing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This article offers narratives of individual journeys through the scholarship of leading in three different contexts—Asia, Europe, and Africa. Together, these narratives argue for the need to make explicit the diversity of practices of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), with each practice inextricably tied to specific geographical, sociocultural, and political contexts. In offering these contextual specificities, we call on all who engage in SoTL to exercise reflexivity in thought, language, and action—to actively foreground our mental models and assumptions about SoTL and what it looks like for ourselves and for others; to sensitively engage scholars who do not share our context; and to strive toward an inclusive mindset and practice that will situate all of us within the “international” of an international organization. We highlight the problems of language, meaning, and translation; and the challenge scholars from “different shores” face in engaging with “other” shores.&nbsp

Elementary Teacher Adaptations to Engineering Curricula to Leverage Student and Community Resources

This paper addresses an important consideration for promoting equitable engineering instruction: understanding how teachers contextualize curricular materials to draw upon student and community resources. We present a descriptive case study of two 5th grade teachers who co-designed a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-aligned curricular unit that integrated science, engineering, and computational modeling. The five-week project challenged students to redesign their school grounds to reduce water runoff and increase accessibility for students with disabilities. The teachers implemented the project with one Grade 5 class with a large proportion of students having individualized learning plans and cultural backgrounds minoritized in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Data sources include classroom videos, teacher interviews, and student artifacts. Findings demonstrate how teachers made helpful, important adaptations to contextualize the curriculum unit and draw upon students’ community-based resources. This case highlights the role of the teacher in enacting engineering materials that privilege student and community resources in elementary classrooms. Findings also underscore the importance of teacher customizations to promote equitable, NGSS-based engineering instruction in elementary classrooms

Bearing witness: working with clients who have experienced trauma - considerations for a person-centered approach to counseling

This paper explores traumatic experience from both a cultural and neurophysiological perspective. An argument is developed to support and challenge the person-centered approach in working with clients who have experienced trauma. Through a case study, elements of theory are illustrated. Drawing from the increased knowledge base in neurophysiology, this paper aims to strengthen confidence in wider empathic attunement and brings attention to safety for both client

Indian nurses in Italy: a qualitative study of their professional and social integration

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To investigate the lived subjective experiences of immigrant Indian nurses in Italy and specifically their professional and social integration. BACKGROUND: To study the worldwide, nursing flux is a health priority in the globalised world. The growth in migration trends among nurses, not only from Philippines or India, has proliferated in recent years. The research on nurses' mobility for Southern European countries is underexplored, and in Italy, the out-migration flows of Indian nurses were never analysed. DESIGN: Qualitative methodological approach. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews (n = 20) were completed with Indian clinical nurses working in Italy for more than one year mainly in private organisations. A purposive sampling technique was used for recruitment. The data were then content-analysed using an inductive method. RESULTS: The findings were categorised into four themes: (1) aspects of professional integration and working experience, (2) intra- and interprofessional relationships and perceptions of the IPASVI Regulatory Nursing Board, (3) initial nursing education and continuous professional development and (4) perceptions of social integration. CONCLUSION: The results show that for Indian nurses in Italy emigration is important to gain opportunities to expand economic and social privileges as well as escape from historical assumptions of stigma associated with nursing work, especially for women. However, these conclusions have to be seen in wider socio-cultural complexities that are at the basis of transnational fluxes (Prescott & Nichter ). RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The research offers an insight into the complicated reasons for Indian nurses out-migration to Italy. Without comprehending the interwoven textures of the political and social relations that are continually constructed and re-constructed among different nations, it is difficult to understand nurses out-migration and consequently have a better and safer collaborative teamwork in the host countries

Life editing: Third-party perspectives on lifelog content

Lifelog collections digitally capture and preserve personal experiences and can be mined to reveal insights and understandings of individual significance. These rich data sources also offer opportunities for learning and discovery by motivated third parties. We employ a custom-designed storytelling application in constructing meaningful lifelog summaries from third-party perspectives. This storytelling initiative was implemented as a core component in a university media-editing course. We present promising results from a preliminary study conducted to evaluate the utility and potential of our approach in creatively interpreting a unique experiential dataset

Supporting Teachers to Work with Children with Exceptionalities

The current study had two purposes: to explore further revisions to the Three-Part Schedule D Additional Qualification (AQ) courses in special education and to determine if a virtual knowledge network would be a viable and welcome tool in building teacher capacity for classroom inclusion of students with exceptionalities. Educational stakeholders convened at the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) for a two-day consultation meeting. A consensus-building workshop was used on the first day to discuss further revisions to the revised AQ course guidelines and to specifically identify gaps in teacher knowledge and skills. An open space consultation (Owen, 1997) was used on the second day to discuss the possibility of a provincial virtual knowledge network that would support revised Special Education AQ course guidelines and build capacity for teachers working with children with exceptionalities. Keywords: Ontario, teacher education, inclusive education, special education, additional qualifications

Co-authorship in the age of cyberculture: Open Educational Resources at the Open University of the United Kingdom

Locating Open Educational Resources (OER) as a phenomenon of cyberculture, this paper presents a reflection on the possibilities of co-authorship that are entailed in OER initiatives of different natures and settings within a large organisation. A selection of OER-related projects and activities carried out at the Open University of United Kingdom (UKOU) are examined from the perspective of a comparative framework proposed by Okada (2010). The framework identifies key features and differences between ‘Closed’ and ‘Open’ Education, that is, respectively, formal education, which takes place within the constraints of institutional Virtual Learning Environments, and informal education, which is gradually taking place more widely in cyberspace. The paper is introduced with a succinct discussion of the connection between cyberculture and the emergence of OER, followed by a presentation of the comparative framework adopted. The UKOU´s structure and methods are then presented, and various projects are discussed. The article concludes by proposing a brief commentary on the creative potential that is being unleashed at the very boundaries between formal and informal educational spaces that cyberculture is challenging

A two-step model for creative teaching in higher education

This paper provides examples of practice demonstrating some underlying principles of translating creative and active pedagogies from school into a higher education context, using a simple two-step model and the concept of creative learning and teaching (Jeffrey, 2006). Since working in higher education, I sought to translate the principles of creative learning and teaching (Jeffrey, 2006) into my praxis. This exercise became particularly prudent when moving into academic development, trying to convey the successful principles underlying my pedagogy to colleagues on the Masters in Academic Practice. The paper will discuss a two-step model I developed: de-contextualizing and then re-contextualizing sometimes complex and intangible learning content to make it more accessible for learners. This will be exemplified by two teaching cases and evidenced with data I collected during my own Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, demonstrating how the approach improved student performance and the overall quality of their academic work. These principles could be easily translated into different disciplinary contexts, with different groups of students

Empowering Teachers to become Change Agents through the Science Education In-Service Teacher Training Project in Zimbabwe

This paper presents findings from a study of three Zimbabwean science teachers who participated in the Science Education In-service Teacher Training (SEITT) program. At the turn of the century, the SEITT program was designed to develop science and mathematics teachers into expert masters and resource teachers for Zimbabwe’s ten school districts. The study investigated the successes and challenges faced by the three teachers who were in the process of reforming their pedagogical practices as well as writing and using contextualized science curriculum materials to teach secondary science. Data were collected through telephone interviews. The three teachers reported that the SEITT program helped them to transform their practice as well as that of their peers. They also reported that changing their teaching methods motivated learners to actively participate and this change also resulted in improved teacher efficacy. The paper discusses implications for improving science teaching and suggestions for contextualizing the science curriculum in developing countries

Glocal Network Shifts: Exploring Language Policies and Practices in International Schools

In this article, we explore glocality within a transnational network of independent schools to understand the interdependence of the global and the local in language policies and practices. Using glocality as a lens, we draw on narrative school profiles written by educators at member schools within the WIDA International School Consortium, a network of 500 K-12 international schools, to examine how global practices are localized within different school contexts. We explore how key aspects of glocality, such as the blurring of boundaries across languages and shifting dynamics of power, become visible as international schools function as hybrid and transnational spaces in which diverse languages and identities intersect. We utilize our role as insider researchers to describe two new directions within our research context. First, we identify a shift from a global network initiated through US-based school-university partnerships towards an increasingly reciprocal exchange among international member schools, with reflexive sharing of ideas and practices between educators and stakeholders across geographic contexts. Second, we identify the increasing presence of a new type of international schools, described in this paper as “glocal” schools, which reflect the deterritorialization of language and an intentional hybridity. The emergence of glocal schools as well as the noted shifts in language and power, illustrate the transcendence of borders and identities closely tied to the concept of glocality. In order to understand the trends observed in this research context, we analyzed 34 narrative school profiles written by member schools and describe connections between macro network-level shifts and micro school-level shifts. Through our analysis, we found individual member schools adapted tools and resources to serve local needs, contextualizing them within a particular program context. As a result, educators shifted how they viewed multilingual learners and multilingualism with respect to English as a medium of instruction. This initial study provides important insights into how glocality as a construct helps explain significant changes occurring within the field of international education