Gender-Inclusive Library Workgroup Report

The Gender-Inclusive Workgroup explored how VCU Libraries can better serve trans and gender-nonconforming users and staff. The group’s recommendations cover library spaces, staff, systems, services, and culture. Key recommendations include highlighting existing all-gender restrooms; building more gender-inclusive restrooms; expanding availability of menstrual products and disposal bins; continuing support for name-of-use changes in library systems; minimizing display of legal name in library systems; offering ongoing staff training in gender-inclusive language and customer service; and encouraging staff to share pronouns. The workgroup also recommends pursuing a culture of shared learning and inclusive thinking, with a reminder that gender identity is one facet of multiple intersecting identities for people in the VCU community

Modelling complexity of gender as an agent of change

Social inclusion continues to develop as a key issue in responsible design practices. To date, we have witnessed change in the development of inclusivity for the aged, and the physically and mentally challenged, but little more than exploration by certain minorities has been achieved concerning gender diversity and fluidity. A key reason for this is cultural complexity, in terms of differences in social constructs, and conflicts with personal constructs, but there is a perceived need for change, towards more inclusive perceptions and behaviours. The commonly held ‘binary’ model may have appeared to offer society a natural method of controlling complexity, by reducing mental effort involved in social decision-making. However, in terms of innovation, the use of such stereotyping may be seen as acting against originality and individualism, certainly not encouraging of positive change and diversity. The traditions attached to the binary model permeate our language, constraining our perceptions and thinking. To present an alternative perspective, this project developed a more inclusive model of gender to recognize diversity and fluidity, while maintaining a level of simplicity to ensure effective comprehension and application. This paper’s presentation of the ‘Gender Fluidity Cube’, seeks to describe the context for a more inclusive view of gender, sex and sexuality, as three dimensions which enable inclusion of any individual or group within its volume. Through a more indepth study this dimensional model may offer creative opportunities to a number of professions including design, marketing and education, as a stepping-stone ‘population’ model, to inform more effective ‘causal’ models for systems thinking

Using the Co-design Process to Build Non-designer Ability in Making Visual Thinking Tools

This research is a case study of using co-design as a way of assisting the capacity building process for an Indianapolis-based community organizer. The community organizer seeks to develop a visual thinking tool for enhancing her engagement with community participants. Community organizers face a wide array of complicated challenges, addressing these kinds of challenges and social issues calls for innovative and inclusive approaches to community problem solving. The author hopes this case study will showcase itself as an example of leveraging design thinking and visual thinking to support and equip more first-line workers who are non-designers to do their community jobs with a more creative problem-solving approach

Inclusive growth: Building up a concept

[Introduction] Inclusive growth has become a central concern in the development literature and in policymaking in many countries. However, the literature presents several different definitions of inclusive growth, which do not converge to a consensus on the concept, let alone one on how to operationalise it sensibly. The concept of inclusive growth came to light in the context of an unfolding shift in development thinking away from seeing equity either as a toll on growth or as a byproduct of growth only setting in after a certain period during which it is eschewed in favour of growth, towards an understanding, albeit not unanimous, that not only is growth with equity possible, but also growth and poverty and inequality reduction can be instrumental to each other. This shift was the result of the progression of development thinking largely grounded on the developmental experiences of those countries that entered the second half of the 20th century outside the select group of developed countries. The process involved a collection of distinct yet somewhat concatenated developments in the understanding of the interaction of growth, poverty and inequality. The next section briefly addresses the changes in development thinking within which the emergence of the concept of inclusive growth is situated. The following section brings an overview of the debate on the concept of pro-poor growth. The section after that presents the debate on the concept of inclusive growth. Following that there is a section addressing attempts to measuring inclusive growth. Finally, the last section highlights the state of the debate on the concept of inclusive growth and indicates key issues that need to be addressed to take it further

A philosophical anchor for creating inclusive communities in early childhood education: anti-bias philosophy and Te Whāriki: Early childhood curriculum.

The basic premise of this paper is that inclusion in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand is a worthy focus of early childhood education curriculum and that an anti-bias philosophy assists in developing curriculum that is inclusive. It is claimed that the early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand is an emancipatory one, and arguments for activism and anti-bias principles in support of curriculum implementation are made. Drawing on anti-bias principles, the current curriculum statement (Te Whāriki: Early Childhood Curriculum) is examined to ascertain what support for anti-bias foci exists. Teaching strategies based upon discussion, critical thinking and an awareness of diversity themes/difference are considered in support of active anti-bias work in early childhood education

Literacy assessment practices: Moving from standardised to ecologically valid assessments in secondary schools

SSLI test protocol data revealed the dominance of 'central' literacy measures and 'local' subject-specific measures aligned to institutional requirements, curriculum and national examination content. These measures initiate secondary students into a pervasive culture of assessment that generally fails to support further learning; a culture antagonistic towards the use of assessment that reflect how expert teachers address subject-specific literacies. In a culture of content-focussed, high stakes assessment, the use of ecologically valid formative assessment that reveal what students can do with what they know, and that empower teachers to test like they teach, is marginalised. Consistent with Neisser's claim that some experimental measures may not reflect reality, the pedagogy and assessment protocols of many secondary schools fail to reflect the use of literacy and thinking tools, and so fail to reflect best evidence about teaching. Changes in school culture, teachers' pedagogical knowledge and the use of ecologically valid assessments are associated with shifts from transmission to co-construction approaches. Consistent with the work of David Corson the use of ecologically valid assessment that reflect the use of literacy and thinking tools is an inclusive, future-focussed literacy event, but the use of 'central' curriculum and institutional-linked measures is exclusive

Introduction

From the margins, we find ourselves well positioned to tell other stories -- life histories, traditions, and cultural myths which typically go unheard in dominant society.[2] As illustrated in the lead article, A Pattern of Possibility: Maxine Hong Kingston\u27s Woman Warrior, by Thelma J. Shinn, such stories are meronymic -- mero from the Greek meaning part -- because our unique social location allows us to see beyond the dominant mythos and tell other parts of the story. Telling these stories is not only empowering to those whom we name, but it also changes and transforms the official storyline itself. Life stories of marginalized peoples demonstrate time and again that there is no one story, no one way of seeing, thinking, or feeling. Moreover, the core of these stories and identities reveal multiple parts of a more inclusive story, a more inclusive way of thinking. Further, meronymic stories unveil the complex operations of power and domination which have denied and suppressed other voices. This special issue of Explorations in Ethnic Studies on race, class, and gender is devoted to telling the other parts of the story

Chronometry for the chorusing herd: Hamilton's legacy on context-dependent acoustic signalling—a comment on Herbers (2013)

Biology Letters’ special feature on Hamilton’s legacy pays due tribute to a brilliant mind. Herbers [1] and the other contributors paint a compelling picture of how Hamilton’s work on inclusive fitness anticipated much contemporary evolutionary thinking, although sometimes not acknowledged until much later. A more recent, although equally cited work by Hamilton is the ‘Geometry for the selfish herd’ [2], an elegant mathematical description of why individuals aggregate in space. In the spirit of this special feature [1], I illustrate why Hamilton’s herd model should be recognized as an early mathematical formal- ism applicable to unrelated, although crucial, biological phenomena. Notably, Hamilton’s model of gregarious behaviour can be directly applied to the prob- lem of context-dependent acoustic signalling as follows, with the potential to describe how interdependent individual calls combine into choruses

The Challenge of Inclusive Growth for the Scottish Economy

"Inclusive Growth" is the new approach to economic policy in Scotland. This Occasional Paper summarises the thinking underlying this approach, including whether and how far it reflects a substantive change in policy. It suggests how the issues raised will frame economic policy in Scotland over the 2016-2021 Parliament, and underlines the importance of work based learning, as one example of how the Scottish Government is putting inclusive growth into practice. It concludes that a broad perspective is required to promote prosperity and address inequality in Scotland in an integrated way

Inclusive Cognitive Hierarchy

Cognitive hierarchy theory, a collection of structural models of non-equilibrium thinking, in which players' best responses rely on heterogeneous beliefs on others' strategies including naive behavior, proved powerful in explaining observations from a wide range of games. We introduce an inclusive cognitive hierarchy model, in which players do not rule out the possibility of facing opponents at their own thinking level. Our theoretical results show that inclusiveness is crucial for asymptotic properties of deviations from equilibrium behavior in expansive games. We show that the limiting behaviors are categorized in three distinct types: naive, Savage rational with inconsistent beliefs, and sophisticated. We test the model in a laboratory experiment of collective decision-making. The data suggests that inclusiveness is indispensable with regard to explanatory power of the models of hierarchical thinking.Series: Department of Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Serie