Discourse and religion in educational practice

Despite the existence of long-held binaries between secular and sacred, private and public spaces, school and religious literacies in many contemporary societies, the significance of religion and its relationship to education and society more broadly has become increasingly topical. Yet, it is only recently that the investigation of the nexus of discourse and religion in educational practice has started to receive some scholarly attention. In this chapter, religion is understood as a cultural practice, historically situated and embedded in specific local and global contexts. This view of religion stresses the social alongside the subjective or experiential dimensions. It explores how through active participation and apprenticeship in culturally appropriate practices and behaviors often mediated intergenerationally and the mobilisation of linguistic and other semiotic resources but also affective, social and material resources, membership in religious communities is constructed and affirmed. The chapter reviews research strands that have explored different aspects of discourse and religion in educational practice as a growing interdisciplinary field. Research strands have examined the place and purpose of religion in general and evangelical Christianity in particular in English Language Teaching (ELT) programmes and the interplay of religion and teaching and learning in a wide range of religious and increasingly secular educational contexts. They provide useful insights for scholars of discourse studies to issues of identity, socialisation, pedagogy and language policy

A Practical View on Crowdfunding Projects Design: Innovative Approach in Entrepreneurial Finance Management

Lack of financing is widely recognized as one of the main obstacles to many innovative ventures, especially the risks and innovations. Most of these difficulties are due to the serious asymmetries of information and the cost of agencies faced by many start-ups, but others may be due to the lack of compatibility with the investment objectives of investors. Despite the fact that the concept of crowdfunding has been widely used recently, the concept of value propositions has not been fully explored in the literature. In this study, we will qualitatively analyze the value proposition dimensions that successfully raised funds from backers of crowdfunding projects. This study provides several practical implications for crowdfunding projects created by product founders and entrepreneurs. The findings recommend that project creators who would like to raise funds or promote products using crowdfunding should consider offering value proposition values to potential backers. In addition, the findings suggest that crowdfunding projects can convince backers about a brand's potential

Capuchin monkey biogeography: understanding Sapajus

Aim: Our aim was to examine gracile capuchin (Cebus) and robust capuchin monkey (Sapajus) diversification, with a focus on recent Sapajus expansion within Amazonia. We wanted to reconstruct the biogeographical history of the clade using statistical methods that model lineages’ occupation of different regions over time in order to evaluate recently proposed ‘Out of Amazonia’ and ‘Reinvasion of Amazonia’ hypotheses as alternative explanations for the extensive geographical overlap between reciprocally monophyletic gracile (Cebus) and robust (Sapajus) capuchin monkeys. Location: Central and South America. Methods: We reconstructed a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny for capuchins under Bayesian inference from three mitochondrial genes. We then categorized 12 capuchin clades across four Neotropical centres of endemism and reconstructed the biogeographical history of the capuchin radiation using six models implemented in ‘BioGeoBEARS’. We performed a phylogeographical analysis for a robust capuchin clade that spans the Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, Caatinga and Amazonia. Results: We find support for a late Miocene vicariant Cebus-Sapajus divergence and a Pleistocene Sapajus invasion of Amazonia from the Atlantic Forest. Our new analyses confirm Sapajus diversified first in the Atlantic Forest, with subsequent range expansion into widespread sympatry with Cebus in Amazonia, as well as multiple expansions into drier savanna-like habitats. We do not find mitochondrial molecular congruence with morphological species distinctions for Sapajus flavius, S. cay, S. macrocephalus, S. libidinosus and S. apella; instead, these five morphological types together form a single widespread clade (Bayesian posterior probability = 1) with geographical substructure and shared ancestry during the Pleistocene. Main conclusions: Our results support vicariance dividing ancestral capuchin populations in Amazonia versus the Atlantic Forest, and a Pleistocene ‘Amazonian invasion’ by Sapajus to explain the present-day sympatry of Cebus and Sapajus. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Lt

Dental remains of cebid platyrrhines from the earliest late Miocene of Western Amazonia, Peru: Macroevolutionary implications on the extant capuchin and marmoset lineages

International audienceObjectives: Undoubted fossil Cebidae have so far been primarily documented from the late middleMiocene of Colombia, the late Miocene of Brazilian Amazonia, the early Miocene of PeruvianAmazonia, and very recently from the earliest Miocene of Panama. The evolutionary history ofcebids is far from being well-documented, with notably a complete blank in the record of callitrichinestem lineages until and after the late middle Miocene (Laventan SALMA). Furtherdocumenting their evolutionary history is therefore of primary importance.Material: Recent field efforts in Peruvian Amazonia (Contamana area, Loreto Department) haveallowed for the discovery of an early late Miocene (ca. 11 Ma; Mayoan SALMA) fossil primatebearinglocality (CTA-43; Pebas Formation). In this study, we analyze the primate material, whichconsists of five isolated teeth documenting two distinct Cebidae: Cebus sp., a medium-sized capuchin(Cebinae), and Cebuella sp., a tiny marmoset (Callitrichinae).Results: Although limited, this new fossil material of platyrrhines contributes to documenting thepost-Laventan evolutionary history of cebids, and besides testifies to the earliest occurrences ofthe modern Cebuella and Cebus/Sapajus lineages in the Neotropics. Regarding the evolutionary historyof callitrichine marmosets, the discovery of an 11 Ma-old fossil representative of the modernCebuella pushes back by at least 6 Ma the age of the Mico/Cebuella divergence currently proposedby molecular biologists (i.e., ca. 4.5 Ma). This also extends back to>11 Ma BP the divergencebetween Callithrix and the common ancestor (CA) of Mico/Cebuella, as well as the divergencebetween the CA of marmosets and Callimico (Goeldi’s callitrichine).Discussion: This discovery from Peruvian Amazonia implies a deep evolutionary root of theCebuella lineage in the northwestern part of South America (the modern western Amazon basin),slightly before the recession of the Pebas mega-wetland system (PMWS), ca. 10.5 Ma, and wellbeforethe subsequent establishment of the Amazon drainage system (ca. 9–7 Ma). During the latemiddle/early late Miocene interval, the PMWS was seemingly not a limiting factor for dispersalsand widespread distribution of terrestrial mammals, but it was also likely a source of diversificationvia a complex patchwork of submerged/emerged lands varying through time

Titi monkey biogeography : parallel Pleistocene spread by Plecturocebus and Cheracebus into a post-Pebas Western Amazon

Titi monkeys, subfamily Callicebinae, are a diverse, species‐rich group of Neotropical primates with an extensive range across South America. Their distribution in space and time makes them an interesting primate model for addressing questions of Neotropical historical biogeography. Our aim was to reconstruct the biogeographic history of Callicebinae to better understand their diversification patterns and the history of their colonisation of South America since the late Miocene. We reconstructed a time‐calibrated phylogeny of 19 titi species under Bayesian inference using two mitochondrial and 11 nuclear loci. Species were assigned across eight Neotropical areas of endemism, and statistical biogeographic methods implemented in BioGeoBEARS were employed to estimate ancestral areas using 12 biogeographic models. Our results indicate that the most recent common ancestor to extant titi monkeys was widespread from the present‐day Andean foothills in the Colombian Amazon, through the wet and dry savannas of Bolivia and Brazil, to the southern Atlantic forest of eastern Brazil. Genus‐level divergences were characterised by vicariance of ancestral range in the late Miocene. Species‐level diversification in Cheracebus and the Plecturocebus moloch group occurred as they spread across the Amazon in the Pleistocene and were largely characterised by a sequential, long‐distance “island‐hopping” dispersal model of speciation from a narrow area of origin through jump dispersal across rivers. This study comprises the first large‐scale investigation of the evolutionary history of titi monkeys in the context of Amazonian and South American historical biogeography and sheds light on the processes that generated the great diversity found among Callicebinae