“I’m Not Talking to You” “You Don’t Have to!” Trans/scripting the Bland-Encinia Case

This manifesto and trans/scription is a response to the specific violence that occurred between a Black female driver (Sandra Bland) and a white police officer (Brian Encinia) in Texas in July 2015 which resulted in Bland’s death. As an urgent #BlackLivesMatter concern, the author considers post-structuralist theories of identity and trans/scription as resources to inform identity performance and trans/imagination with more opportunities for life-giving rather than life-taking results. The author provides a series of questions and challenges to Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners for trans/scripting and trans/imaging moments of racial discrimination and terrorism for long-term rehearsal into, through, and beyond racially motivated violence toward rehumanization

Translingual Public Pedagogy, Precarity and Inquiry: Learned Limits and Limitlessness Through Memoir

In this paper we document the precarity of translingual pedagogies (Canagarajah, 2013), those occurring when languages are in contact and mutually influencing each other with emergent meanings and grammars. Sharing translingual art and literature during a public Lunar New Year Celebration, we turn to memoir methodologies for understanding “trans” practices: those that transgress singular codes, modalities, human/nonhuman cultures, and personal-scientific boundaries. Our findings (and lost things) identify the challenges and possibilities of working in the liminal space of fractured social and linguistic identities

What bilingual poets can do: Re-visioning English education for biliteracy

Abstract This paper describes a bilingual-bidialectal poetry writing programme set up in a community library in the southeastern United States for multi-age learners. The authors explore the use of poetry as a vehicle for biliteracy development. The analysis draws on observations of the students' engagement with poetry both in terms of their writing and the teachers' responses. The paper discusses how poetry can inform a critical, multicultural approach to developing biliteracy in students of all ages and degrees of competence in written English. The authors theorise the role that poetry can play in creating positive learning environments for such students. Keywords Poetry, biliteracy, library workshop (taller) , collaborative work, programme setup in the community 23

Critical Intersections through Poetry in a TESOL & World Language Graduate Education Program

In this studio submission, Language Education students who took one or more poetry writing courses along with their instructor share one poem draft and critical reflection, noting the political climate of the work co-produced and inquiry regarding the impact of producing creative work as reflexive, critical teacher education scholarship. Together they draw a context and implications for creative and critical teacher education through shared poetry writing

Enhancing communication between dementia care staff and their residents: an arts-inspired intervention

Objectives: The arts are increasingly recognised as important and beneficial activities for people living with dementia. However, there is little peer-reviewed published research exploring arts-based learning for dementia care staff. In response, this paper explores (a) how dementia care staff describe forms of communication in care settings, and (b) the impact on communication following four sessions of ‘Creative Conversations’, an arts-based intervention for skills development. Method: Fourteen care homes received the intervention, delivered as 4 × 2 hour sessions. The intervention uses a range of activities (e.g. poetry, film, music, art making). Twenty–eight care staff were opportunistically sampled (mean age = 42.29), and provided pre-post qualitative data, obtained through interviews. Transcripts were analysed thematically. Results: At baseline, the dominant ‘task-focussed’ nature of care work was described as a barrier to communication, challenging opportunities for developing meaningful relationships with residents. Post-intervention, three primary themes were identified regarding improving communication: (1) learning through the arts (secondary themes: simplicity and subtlety, innovation in communication, and strengthening the role of non-verbal communication), (2) Enhancing creative approaches to care (secondary themes: element of surprise, confidence to experiment and catalyst for communication) and (3) professional introspection (secondary themes: development of empathy, sharing knowledge and experiences and a new appreciation). Conclusions: The intervention validated staff skills and confidence, enabling meaningful interactions that could be creative, ‘in the moment’, spontaneous and improvised. This arts-based intervention, which departs from formal education and fact-based learning may be particularly useful for the development of the dementia care workforce

Community-based arts research for people with learning disabilities: challenging misconceptions about learning disabilities

This article presents some of the community-based artwork of a group of men with learning disabilities, who aimed to challenge some of the misconceptions associated with learning disabilities. People with learning disabilities regularly face many forms of direct and indirect stigma. The consequences of such negative perceptions may affect individuals’ social relationships and ensure that barriers are strengthened which prevent their full inclusion. The men in this project used a series of visual and creative methods to challenge some of these misconceptions by telling stories through art, demonstrating skill through photography, using poetry to talk about sexual identity and improvising drama and filmmaking to challenge stigma, and through sculpture expressed their voices. Thus, by doing so, they were able to challenge some of the stigma associated with learning disabilities, indicating that community-based arts research is a valuable way in which to promote the voices of people with learning disabilities

Exploring the place of arts-based approaches in early childhood education research

Defined broadly as the use of art forms – music, drama, music, painting, storying and so on – to create privileged insight into educational policies and practices, Arts-Based Educational Research [ABER] techniques have started to have some, albeit limited, purchase on the mainstream of educational enquiry; there is less evidence, however, of their use in early childhood research. This article critically outlines some chief characteristics of an ABER approach, its claim to legitimacy in the currency of qualitative research practice and the issues which presently both drive and challenge it. An example from our own work is given, and the essay concludes with a prospectus of critical issues, questions and exhortations

Supplemental Information 1: Images of control and 9- cis

Trichoplax adhaerens, the only known species of Placozoa is likely to be closely related to an early metazoan that preceded branching of Cnidaria and Bilateria. This animal species is surprisingly well adapted to free life in the World Ocean inhabiting tidal costal zones of oceans and seas with warm to moderate temperatures and shallow waters. The genome of T. adhaerens (sp. Grell) includes four nuclear receptors, namely orthologue of RXR (NR2B), HNF4 (NR2A), COUP-TF (NR2F) and ERR (NR3B) that show a high degree of similarity with human orthologues. In the case of RXR, the sequence identity to human RXR alpha reaches 81% in the DNA binding domain and 70% in the ligand binding domain. We show that T. adhaerens RXR (TaRXR) binds 9-cis retinoic acid (9-cis-RA) with high affinity, as well as high specificity and that exposure of T. adhaerens to 9-cis-RA regulates the expression of the putative T. adhaerens orthologue of vertebrate L-malate-NADP+ oxidoreductase (EC 1.1.1.40) which in vertebrates is regulated by a heterodimer of RXR and thyroid hormone receptor. Treatment by 9-cis-RA alters the relative expression profile of T. adhaerens nuclear receptors, suggesting the existence of natural ligands. Keeping with this, algal food composition has a profound effect on T. adhaerens growth and appearance. We show that nanomolar concentrations of 9-cis-RA interfere with T. adhaerens growth response to specific algal food and causes growth arrest. Our results uncover an endocrine-like network of nuclear receptors sensitive to 9-cis-RA in T. adhaerens and support the existence of a ligand-sensitive network of nuclear receptors at the base of metazoan evolution