Developmental Pedagogy in Marriage and Family Therapy Education

New practice domains are opening up for practitioners of family therapy in the medical, organizational, and human relations fields. In this new environment, family therapy educators and supervisors are required to cross the epistemological spaces of scientist-practitioner, postmodernism, and critical theory. These new possibilities require that family therapist educators become comfortable moving between multiple epistemologies. This poses increasing challenges that will require a hybridization of knowledge and practice approaches in MFT education. Through focus groups consisting of 34 participants, all of who were in their first quarter of a Master’s degree program in Marriage and Family Therapy. We found a rich set of themes that reflect the experiences of students in their first quarter of learning multiple, potentially contradictory theories. The data that emerged reflect both the deep and varied student experiences that took place as they were introduced to multiple perspectives in their first quarter, as well as student desires that they would have liked to have had met during their experience. The results in each of these areas uniquely inform potential future MFT pedagogical practices

Integration and implementation sciences: building a new specialization

Developing a new specialization—Integration and Implementation Sciences—may be an effective way to draw together and significantly strengthen the theory and methods necessary to tackle complex societal issues and problems. This paper presents an argument for such a specialization, beginning with a brief review of calls for new research approaches that combine disciplines and interact more closely with policy and practice. It posits that the core elements of Integration and Implementation Sciences already exist, but that the field is currently characterized by fragmentation and marginalization. The paper then outlines three sets of characteristics that will delineate Integration and Implementation Sciences. First is that the specialization will aim to find better ways to deal with the defining elements of many current societal issues and problems: namely complexity, uncertainty, change, and imperfection. Second is that there will be three theoretical and methodological pillars for doing this: 1) systems thinking and complexity science, 2) participatory methods, and 3) knowledge management, exchange, and implementation. Third, operationally, Integration and Implementation Sciences will be grounded in practical application, and generally involve large-scale collaboration. The paper concludes by examining where Integration and Implementation Sciences would sit in universities, and outlines a program for further development of the field. An appendix provides examples of Integration and Implementation Sciences in action

Toward Eco-centric, Earth-as-School, and Love-based Curriculum and Learning: Example of a graduate course

This article puts forward love, care, and reverence for all people and our nonhuman kin as the center of posthumanist education. Opening our spiritual eye and building intimate relationships with nature and with all elements of the universe is envisioned as part of a schooling or post-schooling experience; our body, heart and spirit, along with our mind, is an essential part of learning. The article describes the experiences of students taking a graduate level course focusing on global climate change and education at a university in the United States. We use the course as an example to explore what posthumanist education entails. In this qualitative study, students taking the course, along with the faculty designing and teaching the course, describe the course curriculum and pedagogies and reflect on the course’s impact on them. Data sources include the syllabus, students’ reflection papers, nature contact journals, final projects, art works, and group conversations. Although situated in North America, the article is rich with international perspectives as student authors came from six different countries. The article posits that posthumanist education must be eco-centric and love-based, engaging students’ whole being to feel for and love Mother Nature. Keywords: curriculum, education, nature, posthumanism, climate change, higher education, teaching and learning, contemplative pedagogies, spirituality &nbsp

An activity theory analysis of social epistemologies within tertiary-level eLearning environments

In recent years, eLearning or the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in tertiary-level educational environments has experienced phenomenal growth. There is an extensive body of research that has established the pedagogic value of eLearning. The literature has identified key factors that can afford or constrain participation in learning activities supported by ICT. However, amidst much discussion of the benefits of eLearning, concern has been voiced about the apparent failure of eLearning to transform teaching and learning environments. In response to these concerns, this study intends to examine one aspect of eLearning – the use of learning activities underpinned by social epistemologies and mediated by asynchronous web-based technologies in three blended papers (a combination of face-to-face and ICT-supported modes of delivery) in higher education in New Zealand. More specifically, due to the significant numbers of English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners enrolled in New Zealand tertiary institutions, the study seeks to gain a rich and in-depth understanding of the nature of teacher and EAL learner participation in three mainstream (not English language learning) papers within the disciplines of nursing, management, and applied linguistics. By positioning the study within an activity theory perspective and thereby highlighting mediated activity, this inquiry intends to use an expansive conception of participation that takes account of social, cultural, and historical factors in the local and broader context. To investigate the nature of participation within three eLearning contexts, the research design has been shaped by a qualitative orientation. The study has used a case study approach, an exploratory research question, and inductive procedures, and has drawn from ethnographic and phenomenological research methods to allow the nature of participation to emerge through the experiences of teachers and students. Data have been systematically gathered over a five month period by way of semi-structured interviews, accounts, and observations of face-to-face and online activity. Using activity theory as an interpretative tool and drawing from techniques of grounded theory, the collected data have been analysed, coded, and categorised, and the findings emerging from this process have been grounded in the data. The findings show the complexity of eLearning environments and emphasise the crucial role that social and historical factors play in shaping participation. The study has shed light on the ways in which students and teachers make sense of the learning activity by exploring the intersection of previous beliefs and understandings with emergent practice, indicating that sometimes the classroom community constructs meaning in differing and conflicting ways. In addition, this inquiry has brought a critical perspective to bear on the use of interactive learning activities, suggesting that the enactment of social epistemologies is both complex and problematic. This has been particularly evident in relation to the credibility of students to act as resources for each other and the pervasiveness of expedient and instrumentalist approaches to participation. Finally, this inquiry adds to the growing body of work that has used activity theory in educational research, finding activity theory well positioned to meet the need for more expansive conceptions of participation in eLearning

The potential role of ePortfolios in the Teaching Excellence Framework

Current debates on HE policy in the UK are dominated by the evolving Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) which will soon involve the government establishing key metrics.  In this context, and seizing this valuable moment in policy formation, we here provide a brief foray into the multiple aspects of ‘teaching excellence’ (TE) as a basis to highlight both the complexity of identifying ways to measure it and the shortcomings of existing official developments.  In the absence of a clear conceptual understanding of the learning processes and the role of teaching which apparently underpins the TEF, we present a model of the learning process to which the indicators currently proposed by the authorities can be related.  We propose that ePortfolios can play a special role in the TEF in capturing the qualitative outcomes of learning processes which, importantly, reflect the student perspective in terms of goals, learning experiences and achievement.  These are both crucial yet missing elements of the proposals to date. Finally, we provide some examples of how information from ePortfolios could be used by HE institutions to enhance their institutional submissions to the TEF.

Social studies through Web 2.0: A study of online learning

The purpose of this project was to develop a social network site, complete with the abilities to create home pages, blog and participate in a message board (Web 2.0) to create a learning environment, based on constructivist principles and asynchonous learning, to teach a unit of U.S. Government

Dismantling Anti-Blackness in Teacher Education: Centering Black Epistemologies to (Re)Construct Elementary Language Arts Education for Linguistic and Racial Justice

Black students and their linguistic resources are undervalued, disdained, disrespected, and disregarded in language arts classrooms. Not only is Black Language often ignored in English language arts instruction, but language more generally remains largely hidden within elementary ELA. Elementary ELA educators are tasked with teaching a vast array of skills, content, and concepts. So, teacher education programs are responsible for ensuring that preservice teachers leave prepared to take on the task of cultivating language arts classrooms that foster students’ literacy development. However, traditionally, literacy teacher education and the ELA curriculum has maintained white mainstream English as the standard for which all other languages and language varieties are measured. Consequently, preservice teachers are unaware of how to cultivate instruction that supports, values, and affirms the language and literacies lives of their Black students, leaving their teacher education programs unaware of how their own ideologies about language impact their curricular and pedagogical choices. This unpreparedness, the lack of awareness, and unaddressed attitudes towards Black Language, and in turn Black students, leaves speakers of Black Language vulnerable and directly in harm\u27s way at the hands of their language education. This study’s purpose was to trace the development and (re)framing of a language arts methods course, and preservice teachers’ experiences in the course, that centers Black epistemologies to counteract the anti-Blackness that exist in language teacher education and forward Black literacy as liberation and joy in teacher education. This inquiry was addressed through three distinct, yet interconnected articles that utilized different methodologies. The first is a personal experience narrative that recounts my experience developing and (re)constructing a language arts instructional strategies course by employing Black epistemologies. The second utilized qualitative case study to describe four preservice teachers\u27 overall experience in the course. The third highlights a specific literary experience within the course and describes preservice teachers\u27 critical reading of African American young adult literature positioned as a vehicle for racial and linguistic justice. The major implications of this research provide an opportunity for the field of (literacy) teacher education and elementary language arts to (re)frame how courses center Black students, explore Black literacy, especially historically, build and deepen their knowledge of Black Language, interrogate ideologies about language, and combat and challenge anti-Blackness and anti-Black linguistic racism towards an equitable and just language education that centers the linguistic, racial, and cultural needs of Black students

Is It Even Possible? : Student Affairs and Practitioner Preparation for More Racially Diverse College Campuses

In recent years student activism on college campuses has called for new and more equitable racial policies, practices, and pedagogies. Both fueled by and fertile ground for social movements, colleges and universities have mirrored national protests and calls for action toward the democratic imperative of higher education. However, often student affairs administrators have struggled in conceptualizing their roles in engaging students. How were they prepared for this? This research seeks the answer this question - how, if at all, are student affairs practitioners being prepared to work on more racially diverse college campuses? Grounded in cultural-historical activity theory (Engeström, 2001) and critical race theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Yosso, 2002), this research provides analysis of the ways in which student affairs programs engage para-practitioners in racial learning and development. Specifically, this research utilizes a critical case study analysis (Stake, 2005; Yin, 2014) to explore how one higher education and student affairs master\u27s program works to make racial learning and development toward advocacy possible. In doing so this research exposes the reproductive of normative and dominant discourses in national standards and competency documents often used to evaluation para-practitioner learning and the tension experienced as the program at stake attempts to aid para-practitioners in navigating the complex object of racial learning. Implications for teaching and learning, practice, and research present possibilities of affect and emotionality as locations for racial learning, as well as proposing a shift from faculty notions of expertise to shared and consistent learning