An Unexpected Journey: How a Community Based Learning Experience Changed My Teaching Praxis

This paper presents my firsthand experience as a participant in a community based learning experience in the Dominican Republic and my reflections about developing an educational praxis that prepares students to meet Ignatius’ goal of overcoming all evils that beset humankind. In particular, five pedagogical lessons in service of this goal are presented: (1) educators should take the student perspective to facilitate more effective classrooms; (2) students engaging in action will develop a much broader understanding than students learning in a passive manner; (3) contrary to popular belief, confusion is one of our most valuable and underutilized teaching tools; (4) incorporating opportunities for students to develop genuine relationships within educational settings catalyzes a higher level of engagement and; and (5) if our classrooms are designed to allow students opportunities to make the world a better place, more often than not, they will succeed. My experience allowed me to better understand both the Jesuit educational mission and develop pedagogical tools that will meet this mission. I encourage all educators (teachers, staff, and administrators) to engage in their own unique community based learning experiences, as it will change their opinion of what is possible with education

A Woman’s Nature: Addressing Violence Against Women through Femininity in Poland

This article is an investigation of women’s self-defense courses in post-communist Poland. I focus on WenDo, a women’s self-defense seminar which is based on feminist principles and which seeks to empower women through changes in body culture: i.e. their physical capabilities, posture, demeanor and vocalizations when in a position of interpersonal threat or danger. Through an ethnographic study of this self-defense method, I show how WenDo’s pedagogy is designed to lead to these changes. In addition, I question whether WenDo can be conceptualized as a form of women’s empowerment which is disconnected from an organized feminist movement and is based on individualized self-improvement. Although most WenDo organizers and instructors are self-identifying feminists, most participants are wary of feminism and are invested in identities which privilege traditional femininity and domesticity. Therefore, WenDo limits its engagement with feminism in two ways: first, the pedagogy of empowerment in WenDo seminars emphasizes the strengths and limitations of women as an essentialized category. Secondly, the recommendations of WenDo generally focus on the danger women face from strangers on the street as opposed to violence within the family faced by a greater number of women. Despite these limitations, widespread participation of women in WenDo may constitute a culturally appropriate way of addressing women’s status in an environment that is largely hostile to feminist organization

Fanciful Examples

This article defends the use of fanciful examples within the method of wide reflective equilibrium. First, it characterizes the general persuasive role of described cases within that method. Second, it suggests three criteria any example must meet in order to succeed in this persuasive role; fancifulness has little or nothing to do with whether an example is able to meet these criteria. Third, it discusses several general objections to fanciful examples and concludes that they are objections to the abuse of described cases; they identify no special problem with fanciful examples

Parenting Narcissus: What are the links between parenting and narcissism

ABSTRACT Previous theorizing by clinical psychologists suggests that adolescent narcissism may be related to parenting practice

Parenting narcissus: what are the links between parenting and narcissism?

ABSTRACT Previous theorizing by clinical psychologists suggests that adolescent narcissism may be related to parenting practices (Kernb-erg, 1975; Kohut, 1977). Two studies investigated the relations between parenting dimensions (i.e., warmth, monitoring, and psychological con-trol) and narcissism both with and without removing from narcissism variance associated with trait self-esteem. Two hundred and twenty-two college students (Study 1) and 212 high school students (Study 2) com-pleted the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, a trait self-esteem scale, and standard measures of the three parenting dimensions. Parental warmth was associated positively and monitoring was associated negatively with both types of narcissism. Psychological control was positively associated with narcissism scores from which trait self-esteem variance had been re-moved. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed, limitations are addressed, and future research directions are suggested

Racial differences in pain treatment and empathy in a Canadian sample

BACKGROUND: Evidence of inadequate pain treatment as a result of patient race has been extensively documented, yet remains poorly understood. Previous research has indicated that nonwhite patients are significantly more likely to be undertreated for pain. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether previous findings of racial biases in pain treatment recommendations and empathy are generalizable to a sample of Canadian observers and, if so, to determine whether empathy biases mediate the pain treatment disparity. METHODS: Fifty Canadian undergraduate students (24 men and 26 women) watched videos of black and white patients exhibiting facial expressions of pain. Participants provided pain treatment decisions and reported their feelings of empathy for each patient. RESULTS: Participants demonstrated both a prowhite treatment bias and a prowhite empathy bias, reporting more empathy for white patients than black patients and prescribing more pain treatment for white patients than black patients. Empathy was found to mediate the effect of race on pain treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study closely replicate those from a previous study of American observers, providing evidence that a prowhite bias is not a peculiar feature of the American population. These results also add support to the claim that empathy plays a crucial role in racial pain treatment disparity. © 2012 Pulsus Group Inc