Logics of Temporal-Epistemic Actions

We present Dynamic Epistemic Temporal Logic, a framework for reasoning about operations on multi-agent Kripke models that contain a designated temporal relation. These operations are natural extensions of the well-known "action models" from Dynamic Epistemic Logic. Our "temporal action models" may be used to define a number of informational actions that can modify the "objective" temporal structure of a model along with the agents' basic and higher-order knowledge and beliefs about this structure, including their beliefs about the time. In essence, this approach provides one way to extend the domain of action model-style operations from atemporal Kripke models to temporal Kripke models in a manner that allows actions to control the flow of time. We present a number of examples to illustrate the subtleties involved in interpreting the effects of our extended action models on temporal Kripke models. We also study preservation of important epistemic-temporal properties of temporal Kripke models under temporal action model-induced operations, provide complete axiomatizations for two theories of temporal action models, and connect our approach with previous work on time in Dynamic Epistemic Logic

‘You’ve got to teach people that racism is wrong and then they won’t be racist’: Curricular representations and young people’s understandings of ‘race’ and racism.

This paper critically examines the discursive (mis) representation of ‘race’ and racism in the formal curriculum. Combining qualitative data derived from interviews with 35 young people who were enrolled in a Dublin-based, ethnically diverse secondary school, with a critical discursive analysis of 20 textbooks, the paper explores parallels between young people’s understandings of ‘race’ and racism and curricular representations of these constructs. It is argued that the formal education system reinforces, rather than challenges, popular theories of racism, and endorses the ideological framework of colourblind racism by providing definitions and explanations which individualize, minimize, and naturalize racism. The analysis centres around four major inter-related themes: (1) the individualization of racism; (2) the attribution of racism to difference; (3) the role of narratives of denial and redemption in the construction of an ‘anti-racist’ state; and (4) the reification of ‘race’. The final section of the paper seeks to synthesize some of the broader political and ethical consequences and ideological effects of dominant discourses on ‘race’ and racism, and offers some concrete illustrations of how ‘race’ and racism could be re-narrativized in schools

Another cog in the anti-politics machine? The 'de-clawing' of development education'

This issue of Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review is devoted to the theme of ‘Professionalisation and Deradicalisation of Development Education’ and is centrally concerned with a number of paradoxes and contradictions that characterise the field in an era of neo-liberal shaped globalisation. It addresses, in particular, the question of why the development education sector endorses, tacitly or otherwise, the very ideologies and political-economic arrangements that are responsible for producing or exacerbating conditions of poverty and injustice, while simultaneously encouraging people to take action against this poverty and injustice? It asks: What are the implications of retaining a politically detached stance on crucial policy issues that the sector is ideally positioned to respond to? Why does the sector sometimes have surprisingly little to say about key development issues and crises as they are played out in local contexts? What are the consequences for development organisations that do take on divisive ‘local’ issues? What have efforts to ‘mainstream’ development education within formal education meant for the radical underpinnings of the field? What does it mean to ‘do’ development education in an era of financial austerity and insecurity, where people’s lived experiences increasingly clash with their inward expectations and desires for their (now blunted) futures — futures which were, for many, until very recently, imagined in far more positive and hopeful terms? How are government cuts to development education impacting on its practice? Do the long-term educative goals of informing citizens about the underlying structural causes of poverty and injustice inevitably become compromised or obscured within the context of more immediate ‘bread and butter’ tasks like fundraising for development programmes in the global South? How can those whose task it is to educate people about the structural and systemic features of global poverty best align themselves within organisations whose primary function is to fund raise and raise awareness about their projects overseas

Local Climatological Data Summary: Fairfield, Illinois, 1901-1990

Fairfield (Wayne County) has a temperate continental climate, dominated by maritime tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico from about March through November. Gulf air generally supports relative humidities of about 60% during the day and 85% at night. During these months, there are occasional, brief interruptions of drier, cooler air from the Pacific Ocean, but typically only last for a few days. From November through March, the Fairfield area is dominated by Pacific Ocean air. Four to six times each winter, cold, dry air from the Canadian Arctic breaks south, bringing temperatures into the teens and even units. Average annual precipitation is about 44.94 inches. The highest temperature on record is 113°F recorded on 22 July 1901, whereas the lowest is -23°F occurring on 17 January 1977.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewedOpe

Up Schitt’s Creek?: Comedy as a slantwise pedagogical encounter with queerness

Pedagogical approaches to learning about LGBTQI+ themes and experiences remain a largely under-studied topic in teacher education. In response to this gap, the purpose of this paper is to offer reflections on the pedagogical value of comedy for exploring such themes and experiences in teacher education, focusing especially on the situational comedy (sitcom) Schitt’s Creek. We suggest that the sitcom offers teacher education an opportunity for ‘slantwise’ pedagogical encounters with LGBTQI+ themes and experiences, i.e., non-affronting encounters that resist damage-centred narratives of LGBTQI+ people and are open to multiple queer futures. In exploring how the sitcom offers teacher educators and student teachers these kinds of encounters, we provide a reading of three episodes of Schitt’s Creek through a ‘queer utopian’ lens. We accompany this analysis with prompts for teacher educators to use in discussing these episodes in the teacher education classroom. The piece concludes with some thoughts on the significance of comedy for exploring the relationship between affect, education, and social justice more generally

From ‘the conscience of humanity’ to the conscious human brain: UNESCO’s embrace of social-emotional learning as a flag of convenience

This article analyses UNESCO’s advocacy of social emotional learning (SEL) as key to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—particularly SDG target 4.7. It interrogates the agency’s growing emphasis on digital SEL and conscious ‘whole brain’ approaches as part of a wider neuroliberal turn towards the behavioural, psychological and neurological sciences and considers their implications for UNESCO’s status as the ‘conscience of humanity.’ It argues that ‘SEL for SDGs’ operates as a ‘flag of convenience’ hoisted by UNESCO to garner legitimacy in a global governance landscape increasingly shaped by private/corporate interests, new (tech-based) philanthropy, and neoliberal policies and funding infrastructures. It demonstrates how the privileging of biological and neuropsychological explanations for complex global problems is reconfiguring UNESCO’s global citizenship work towards a depoliticised, individualistic and neuroliberally-inflected ‘conscious human brain’ response to complex societal challenges which forestalls political dialogue and undermines an appreciation of their material and economic determinants

Affective pedagogies: foregrounding emotion in climate change education

his article addresses the psychic and emotional challenges associated with enabling learners to apprehend their role in, and vulnerability to, the evolving climate crisis. Global warming is arguably one of the most cognitively as well as emotionally complex topics for learners or members of the public more generally to engage with. Given the emergent nature of climate change, many educators are unsure about how best to enable citizens to navigate the complex emotions that they experience in response to their proximity to, and responsibility for, a myriad of injustices and environmental catastrophes associated with global warming

Supporting LGBT lives in Ireland: A study of the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people

This research set out to examine mental health and well-being, including an investigation of suicide vulnerability (risk) and resilience, among LGBT people in Ireland. A survey instrument, which took approximately 15-20 minutes to complete online, was designed to capture the experiences of LGBT people living in Ireland in a variety of settings and contexts. This instrument included demographic variables, schooling experiences, perceptions of belonging, victimisation and harassment, workplace experiences, and patterns of alcohol use. Indicators of mental health and well-being were also ascertained, including history of self-injurious behaviour and attempted suicide. In the community assessment process phase of the research a total of 14 interviews were conducted. Specific interview topics and questions targeted experiences that may have been challenging, difficult or stressful (e.g. experiences of discrimination, homophobic bullying, stress associated with ‘coming out’ to family and peers). Questions also focussed where relevant on respondents’ experience of depression, anxiety and loneliness and on their use of alcohol and/or drugs. Other sections of the interview concentrated on positive experiences and protective factors. P.16 Alcohol use Prevalence • Ninety two percent of the survey sample were current drinkers, about half of whom consumed alcohol on a weekly basis. • The vast majority of survey respondents who drank (84%) also reported that they engaged in heavy episodic or ‘binge’ drinking either intermittently or regularly, a fifth of whom did so at least twice a week. Problem drinking • Over 40% of survey respondents reported that their alcohol consumption made them ‘feel bad or guilty’ and that almost 60% felt they should reduce their intake of alcohol. • Responses to standardised measures of alcohol use (CAGE and AUDIT-C) suggest that the alcohol consumption patterns of a significant minority of online survey participants could be characterised as problematic, as they exceeded the threshold for hazardous drinking or probable alcohol misuse. • Qualitative findings suggest that regular or heavy alcohol consumption was strongly associated with a felt need to ‘mask’ distressing emotional states and that some used alcohol as a coping mechanism or a form of self-medication

The reflective practitioner model as a means of evaluating development education practice: Post-primary teachers' self-reflections on 'doing' development education.

In this article, Melíosa Bracken and Audrey Bryan explore the usefulness of reflective practice as a self-evaluative learning tool for development educators involved in formal education settings. Drawing on data derived from the reflective practice portfolios of students enrolled in an initial teacher education programme as well as from in-depth interviews with in-career teachers, insights are offered into some of the pedagogical struggles, uncertainties and dilemmas faced by teachers of development or global issues in post-primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. The findings are drawn from a much larger forthcoming study supported by Irish Aid which critically explores how the so-called ‘developing world’ gets constructed as ‘knowable’ to young people in an Irish context

Learning to read the world? Teaching and Learning about Global Citizenship and International Development in Post-primary Schools.

This is the first published study of its kind in an Irish context, offering combined insights into the status and practice of Development Education in post-primary schools as well as an interrogation of how development issues are represented in the formal curriculum. It adopted a qualitative approach, enabling a rich description of what Development Education looks like in an Irish context and how it is understood in post-primary schools, as well as an in-depth exploration of teachers’ experiences and views about ‘doing’ Development Education in post-primary settings. Combining an analysis of curriculum materials (including 75 lesson plans and a similar number of textbooks) as well as in-depth interviews with 26 in-career teachers currently teaching Development Education in a broad and diverse cross-section of post-primary schools, the study provides a comprehensive portrait of Global Citizenship Education in Irish second-level schools