Can the goldfish see the water? A critical analysis of ‘good intentions’ in cross-cultural practice

We claim to hold values that our students are responsible and autonomous adults whose success in our courses is best facilitated by our understanding of and respect for their specific backgrounds. We wish to be judged on these values by feedback provided by our students and those with whom we work. However, how well, if ever, are we able to ‘see the water,’ the cultural conditioning that leads us to act in ways that seem supportive of our students to us, but may be perceived differently by them? In this paper, we present conflicting evidence around perceptions of our practice. We discuss where things have gone well, and where interventions have possibly been traumatic for the recipients. We question whether, and how, our practice cross-culturally can be safe. We challenge ourselves and others to think carefully about our responsibilities to our students, whether our privileged positioning obliges us to share and if so, how that sharing can occur in ways that validate and equally respect the values of those with whom we work

Overview of the labour market [October 2002]

The latest figures on the labour market in Scotland are summarised. Over the last quarter, Labour Force Survey (LFS) data showed that employment increased by 16 thousand in the three months to May 2002, to 2,376 thousand - up 0.7 per cent on the previous quar ter level. Over the year to May 2002, employment fell by 3 thousand. The employment rate - as a percentage of the working age population in employment - increased to 73.1 per cent, up 0.5 percentage points on the previous quarter. The paper provides an account of quarterly LFS employment over a two-year period to May 2002

Solution of Extremal Problems in Bergman Spaces Using the Bergman Projection

In this paper we discuss the explicit solution of certain extremal problems in Bergman spaces. In order to do this, we develop methods to calculate the Bergman projections of various functions. As a special case, we deal with canonical divisors for certain values of $p$.Comment: 25 pages, to appear in Computational Methods and Function Theor

Overview of the labour market [March 2003]

The latest figures on the labour market in Scotland are summarised. Over the last quarter, Labour Force Survey (LFS) data showed that employment increased by 9 thousand in the three months to November 2002, to 2,415 thousand - up 0.4 percent on the previous quarter level. Over the year to November 2002, employment increased by 24 thousand. The employment rate - as a percentage of the working age population in employment - increased to 74.5 per cent, up 0.4 percentage points on the previous quarter. The paper provides an account of quarterly LFS employment over a two-year period to November 2002