A Critical Review of Teachers Using Solution-Focused Approaches Supported by Educational Psychologists

This paper offers reflections on teachers using solution-focused approaches in schools, supported by Educational Psychologists (EPs). The paper provides an outline of the development of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), its assumptions and its limitations. Literature describing its application in schools by teachers and the evidence of its effectiveness is reviewed using a Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist. A discussion about the appropriateness of this tool is also examined, leading to further discussion relating to evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence. The paper concludes that it is very difficult for EPs to judge the strength of the evidence base for solution-focused approaches since this judgement is affected by the epistemological position a person takes

How can Educational Psychologists improve their practice of working systemically in Early Years settings? Evidence from Action Research in one Local Authority Nursery in the Southeast of England

Aims and Background: This action research study aimed to improve my practice of working systemically with an Early Years setting. Two integrative literature reviews highlighted a lack of research in this area, alongside a desire for Educational Psychologists to work at a systemic level in the Early Years, giving a rational for this research. Method and Data analysis: The study took an exploratory design and an action research framework to investigate How can I improve my practice of working systemically with an EY setting over an academic term. In this research, the data collected was qualitative, as I received feedback from participants, I analysed it and modified my practice. Consequently, data collection and analysis were discussed simultaneously. The essence of my data set is made up of my research diary, observations, audio recordings of a meeting and focus group with the EY staff and questionnaires to evaluate each systemic piece of work. Much of the data was analysed using a broadly ethnographic approach and some of the data from cycle three was also analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results and Discussion: By working systemically with an EY setting I improved my practice in this area and created a toolbox of approaches that a Trainee Educational Psychologist or an EP new to systemic working could use when working systemically with an EY setting. This toolbox included: consultation skills, attuned interactions, participation, contracting and guiding principles. One limitation of this research was that I did not have sufficient contact time with the Early Years staff to explore with them ‘how’ I worked systemically and as such I had to determine this from my own interpretations of the data. Thus, I would recommend this, as an area for further research

Future wave climate over the west-European shelf seas

In this paper, we investigate changes in the wave climate of the west-European shelf seas under global warming scenarios. In particular, climate change wind fields corresponding to the present (control) time-slice 1961–2000 and the future (scenario) time-slice 2061–2100 are used to drive a wave generation model to produce equivalent control and scenario wave climate. Yearly and seasonal statistics of the scenario wave climates are compared individually to the corresponding control wave climate to identify relative changes of statistical significance between present and future extreme and prevailing wave heights. Using global, regional and linked global–regional wind forcing over a set of nested computational domains, this paper further demonstrates the sensitivity of the results to the resolution and coverage of the forcing. It suggests that the use of combined forcing from linked global and regional climate models of typical resolution and coverage is a good option for the investigation of relative wave changes in the region of interest of this study. Coarse resolution global forcing alone leads to very similar results over regions that are highly exposed to the Atlantic Ocean. In contrast, fine resolution regional forcing alone is shown to be insufficient for exploring wave climate changes over the western European waters because of its limited coverage. Results obtained with the combined global–regional wind forcing showed some consistency between scenarios. In general, it was shown that mean and extreme wave heights will increase in the future only in winter and only in the southwest of UK and west of France, north of about 44–45° N. Otherwise, wave heights are projected to decrease, especially in summer. Nevertheless, this decrease is dominated by local wind waves whilst swell is found to increase. Only in spring do both swell and local wind waves decrease in average height

The precision of international market sampling for North Sea herring and its influence on assessment

Market sampling is a key source of data for catch-at-age-based assessment. Little has been documented about the influence of potential error in these data on the precision of assessments and the management information they produce. This paper presents the results of a study of the precision of North Sea herring fish market sampling carried out by the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands. Data from eight years of market sampling were analysed to obtain the precision of estimated numbers-at-age in the catch. The market sample data was then used to estimate 1000 realisations of the international catch-at-age and mean weightsat- age in the catch. Three methods of estimating the variability of missing catch data were used and three options for the catch-at-age matrices were computed. These base datasets were utilised to obtain 1000 assessments conditional on the ICA (Integrated Catch-at-age Analysis) model. From the outcome of these assessments the influence of the market sampling programmes on the management of the stock are presented as 95␌onfidence intervals on the main management parameters (recruitment, SSB, F0-1 and F2-6). In addition, the influence of missing data is estimated. The implications of our conclusions on the requirements from a market sampling programme are discusse

Invoking posthumanist vistas: A diffractive gaze on curriculum practices and potential

Humanist discourse has assumed such an ideological normalcy to the extent that any attempts at its disruption are likely to be met with severe resistance. As such, higher education curriculum design and curriculum content continue to be largely anthropocentric, buoyed by human-centred neoliberal principles that have gradually encroached the academe. To explore ways out of the dilemma, we draw on wild pedagogy theory (Jickling 2015; Mcphie and Clarke 2015; Springgay and Zaliwska 2017; Jickling et al. 2018b) as a means to challenge the straitjacket constraints of neoliberal higher education. Over time, the wild has been banished from classrooms: the call for wild pedagogies might mean that we have reached the limits of the “tamed” ‒ and we have tamed a lot in order to offer a “one size fits all” approach to (higher) education (Jickling et al. 2018a). The tendency for higher education to teach more and more people in less and less time, has implied an understanding of teaching that is characterised by efficiency and processing, at the cost of the process of learning as a relational becoming with the world in the posthuman condition we live in (Braidotti 2019). In this article, vignettes are used to offer an account of our critical posthumanist incursions as university lecturers into curriculum practices. We use a diffractive gaze to present the generative potential of non-anthropocentric approaches as well as the struggles that these present as we strive to de-center our humanistic tendencies towards curriculum knowledge and teaching within the neoliberal space, we find ourselves

Discourses shaping human rights education research in South Africa: Future considerations

Human rights education is critiqued for being traditionalist and conceptually imprisoned. This view stems from the distrust in its ability to transform deeply rooted injustices and inequalities etched within South Africa’s society. There is therefore an outcry to reimagine human rights education. For this article it is important to understand how and why human rights education discourses in South Africa have come to be framed by some scholars in this way and to contemplate where the discourse might be heading in the future. We reviewed doctoral theses in the field of Education which claim to engage with and make contributions to human rights education research. We found that human rights education discourses have been (and are being) shaped in South Africa in terms of three distinct phases: inception, growth, and cynicism. It became evident from the findings that human rights education research is predominantly school-based and fundamentally descriptive and uncritical. To conclude, we reflect on these findings so as to put forward future considerations for human rights education research

Understanding how we understand girls’ voices on cultural and religious practices: toward a curriculum for justice

It is imperative to take account of the many faces of justice when exploring the elements of a curriculum for justice. Justice is not only about equity, equality and fairness, but about creating spaces where people can learn to prioritise a significant Other and practise doing so. The curriculum needs to provide a space where the legal, restorative face of justice and its ethical face could coincide. Firstly, we argue that a sole focus on justice as reasonableness might reinforce the notion of “separate but equal”, and that through a leveling of difference, we might opaquely strengthen difference without an inclination to care deeply for those whose background might differ from ours. Secondly, we argue that the legal and ethical faces of justice are not mono-tonal, but that these faces constitute many complexions based on the body holding it (or the person who attempts to make sense of these faces). In this article we will attempt to understand how we make sense of girls’ voices on cultural and religious practices. We imagine that understanding how we understand Others might place us in a better position to provide guidelines to develop curriculum spaces for profound justice; i.e. justice that is based on reasonableness and, more importantly, on care.Keywords: caring curriculum; critical discourse analysis; girls’ narratives; justice; null curriculum; unconscious curriculu

Nosocomial hepatitis C virus infection in a renal transplantation center

AbstractNosocomial hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections were recorded in the renal transplantation unit of the university hospital. There were cases of acute HCV infection with aggressive clinical courses diagnosed from a positive HCV RNA test in the early post-transplantation period and which remained anti-HCV negative. Their anti-HCV seronegativity was attributed to them having acquired HCV under intense immunosuppressive therapy and suggested that the aggressive clinical course could be due to the deficient immune response resulting in an inability to limit viral replication. There were also donors diagnosed as having acute HCV infection in the early post-operative period. Genotyping and sequence analysis for HCV were performed on the isolates of eight of these patients who were consecutively transplanted and of three donors whose recipients were infected with HCV prior to transplantation, and who acquired acute HCV infection after transplantation. Of the eight recipients in the first group three were genotype 1a, three were genotype 1b, one wasgenotype 3a, and the last one was genotype 4 according to Simmond's classification. Of the three donor-recipient couples both the HCV isolates from one couple were genotyped as 1b and the phylogenetic analysis indicated that the patients were infected with a common variant of HCV, but the genotypesof HCV isolates from the other couples were different. Recipients were genotype 1b and the donors were genotype 1a in these couples. Genotype results of the first group and donor-recipient couples, and sequence analysis of genotype 1b and 1a isolates, showed that the source of infection was not a unique strain and there were multiple breaks in universal precautions while managing these patients

Posthumanist curriculum studies and post-schooling: Contemplations from the South

No abstract because this is an editorial&nbsp