Israel Education Through Encounters With Israelis

This guide probes the broad subject of contact between Diaspora Jews and Israelis both in Israel and in your Jewish community. It describes the instances in which encounters currently occur, present some of the issues which need to be addressed by those wishing to enhance the experience, and recommend specific ways for expanding and increasing the effectiveness of such a potentially rich form of Israel education

The radical potential of student voice : creating spaces for restless encounters

This paper starts by sketching out some of the developments in research partnerships between adults and young people within the context of formal schooling in the last twenty years and then briefly touches on some of the critiques of such work, underlining the role of values and political perspectives. The third section argues for a particular - person-centred - standpoint resting on a relational, communal view of the self that puts certain kinds of relationships at the heart of education and schooling in general, and student voice partnerships in particular. Finally, the author argues for the importance of creating spaces for restless encounters between adults and young people in which they are able to re-see and re-engage with each other in creative, holistic and potentially transformational ways. In taking this forward, the much neglected and derided radical traditions of state education offer us an important resource.peer-reviewe

Discarded: Exploring material stories and movements through participatory, public art interventions

Drawing on DeCerteau’s (1984) philosophy of tactics, which subvert dominant ways of being through creative appropriations of space and behavior, and New Materialist philosophies that offer vitality and agency to non-human objects (Barad, 2007; Bennett, 2004; 2010), this paper explores a three-part series of participatory, public art interventions related to waste, consumption and material relationships. The three installations were distinct but connected, situated in public spaces and corridors as a means of disrupting daily moments while encouraging moments of pause to be with discarded, material objects in playful and creative ways (de Certeau, 1984; Debord, 1956). With these installations we challenged hierarchical perceptions of object matter by encouraging care and attentiveness to these discarded objects through imaginative story-building. This attentiveness to discard objects further invited compassionate ways of being with this matter that may extend to other forms of life matter, in pursuit of more sustainable and socially just practices of being (and becoming). Through a combination of photographs, participant accounts, and materials created during the installations, this article explores the stories of these events and the ways in which such work may open space for arts-based pedagogical encounters (O’Sullivan, 2006)

Parents’ experiences of support: co-constructing their stories

This paper presents some of the findings of a study of parents’ experiences of support services for their young children with special needs, combined with an argument about the value of the process of co-structing the stories of those experiences. The study was conducted in England with six parents using an ethnographic case study approach with narrative analysis. The parents’ narratives, interwoven with the reflection of the researcher/ early years professional, illustrate that engaged listening offers a way forward for professionals and parents (as well as researchers) to understand each other as they participate in co-construction. The process elicits much of what each are fearful of telling or hearing and about the balance of fragility and resilience in their assumptions and relationships

High Tea at the Conviviality Café: Research Tool or Design Intervention?

The FLEX project asked how we might age convivially at home. In response to concerns about an ageing British population, we looked at social factors of wellbeing in the ambient realm of neighbourhood encounters. We report on how we asked our research participants in Newcastle, north England, and Dundee, Scotland, about their understanding of conviviality, using a café environment to inspire a relaxed and friendly exchange of views over tea. We consider the way that questions were designed into the two courses of the meal and ask: is this perhaps a form of research-through-design for social contexts? Certainly, participants responded to the environment and subtle questioning style. And we draw a contrast between this form of designing - for use in research - and the more summative purpose of the exhibits that also came out of the project