Creative Universities : Reimagining Education for Global Challenges and Alternative Futures (2021)

The book ‘Creative Universities’ by Anke Schwittay (2021) is unlike any other academic text I have read about teaching; the pages buzz with hope, creative vision and radical possibilities, and it left me wanting to do my teaching differently, to shake up our learning spaces, and to keep asking questions. This book is a call to arms in which Schwittay invites us to have courage, take risks, cause disturbance, be creative, and alongside our students reshape the way we engage in education via a critical-creative pedagogy (hereafter C-CP). The words and ideas laid on the pages nudge us into reflections about our identity as academics, asking us difficult questions: how courageous can we be? What risks are we willing to take

Catch it, drop it, leave it there: Writing for Wellbeing as a tool for compassionate practice in Higher Education

This is the story of a series of writing workshops with four undergraduate final year students, in a non-formal, non-graded, non-curriculum space. Students were introduced to ‘writing for wellbeing’ (WfW), using expressive writing strategies adapted from poetry/bibliotherapy practice. Initially intended as a research method for their dissertation projects, the writing workshops evolved into a significant creative space for the students’ own personal development. Shared reflections about our experience of writing together sheds light on the broader potential of WfW as a participatory research method, and as a compassionate approach for writing the self in higher education

Stone working in antiquity, general techniques and a framework of critical factors derived from the construction of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem

The focus of this thesis is on the most commonly used types of stone, the methods of quarrying stone, stone working, the tools developed and used for that purpose, and the ways in which stone was transported and hoisted into place. This is starting from the earliest times in which large temples or buildings were constructed, namely the Neolithic, up till the time of the Roman Empire. Besides being a kind of compendium of most aspects of stone working, which could be found, also attention is given to the ideal conditions under which the construction of a large temple or monument could take place. The framework, which is developed from the description of the construction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem in I Kings 5 and I Chronicles 28, is used to analyse the construction of a number of other temples in different times, places and settings, and with the use of different materials, to test if the framework is applicable in all these situations. Moreover, also other aspects of stone working, such as mosaics and the manufacturing of stone vessels in Jerusalem are described and analysed as to their origins and uses. The intention is to give an overview of the many ways in which stone has been used, so that the reader can get an idea of how large temples and monuments were built and to gain an understanding of what kind of technical know-how and ingenuity existed in antiquity.Religious Studies and ArabicD. Phil. (Religious Studies (Biblical Archaeology)

Creative Universities : Reimagining Education for Global Challenges and Alternative Futures (2021)

The book ‘Creative Universities’ by Anke Schwittay (2021) is unlike any other academic text I have read about teaching; the pages buzz with hope, creative vision and radical possibilities, and it left me wanting to do my teaching differently, to shake up our learning spaces, and to keep asking questions. This book is a call to arms in which Schwittay invites us to have courage, take risks, cause disturbance, be creative, and alongside our students reshape the way we engage in education via a critical-creative pedagogy (hereafter C-CP). The words and ideas laid on the pages nudge us into reflections about our identity as academics, asking us difficult questions: how courageous can we be? What risks are we willing to take

Hvilke ledelsesværktøjer virker i private og offentlige organisationer?

Værdibaseret Ledelse og New Public Management-styringsværktøjer har i de sidste årtier vundet indpas i den offentlige sektor. Begge styrings/ledelsesværktøjer er stærkt inspireret fra den private sektor. Men hvordan virker de i en offentlig kontekst? Og er styrings- og ledelsesværktøjer, som er hentet fra og inspireret kraftigt af den private sektor, vejen at gå for offentlige organisationer? Hensigten med denne artikel er at undersøge, hvordan de to ledelsesværktøjer virker på performance i offentlige organisationer sammenlignet med private virksomheder, hvor performance forstås som organisationseffektivitet, medarbejdertilfredshed, sygefravær og medarbejdergennemstrømning. Baseret på en spørgeskemaundersøgelse blandt 1600 private og offentlige ledere undersøges det, hvilke værktøjer der er mest effektive i private virksomheder sammenlignet med offentlige organisationer

Challenge Funds in International Development

The use of challenge funds to promote economic and social development continues to grow, buthas been the subject of relatively little research. This paper develops a definition of what challengefunds are and how they differ from other development funding mechanisms, taking into accounttheir purpose, financial terms, agency relationships, screening processes, selection mechanisms,implementation and risk sharing characteristics. A challenge fund provides grants or subsidies withan explicit public purpose between independent agencies with grant recipients selectedcompetitively on the basis of advertised rules and processes who retain significant discretion overformulation and execution of their proposals and share risks with the grant provider. This paperdraws on a review of fifty challenge funds being operated by international agencies in order toexplore variation in their characteristics. A distinction is drawn between business oriented‘enterprise’ challenge funds and civil society or social development challenge funds, and betweenrelatively ‘light touch’ and ‘hands-on’ approaches to their management. The paper concludes withsuggestions for further research

Translating rights : childhoods and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Oaxaca City, Mexico

The starting point for this thesis is the acknowledgement of the gap between the rhetoric around children's rights and the reality of children's lives at grassroots level. The purpose of my research is to bring this gap into focus, by exploring the disparities between the multifaceted and fluid nature of children's roles and the ideals and vision encapsulated in the child rights discourse. This thesis argues that normative perceptions of childhood and children's roles, which are embedded in society, lie at the root of this disparity and maintain a clear boundary between childhood and adulthood. These understandings of childhood are at odds with the lived realities of children's lives in Oaxaca, which blur fixed boundaries and challenge normative perceptions of who, what, where and how children should be. This divergence, between perceptions of childhood and real experiences of childhood, raises important considerations for the practical implementation of the CRC at the grassroots level, and is apparent in terms of language and pedagogical methods within institutional approaches to children's rights. Via a discussion of these embedded notions of childhood and adultist approaches to child rights teaching and advocacy, this thesis uncovers a key obstacle to the implementation of the CRC in terms of meaningful knowledge for children in Mexico. Empirical research was carried out in Oaxaca City, Mexico, with two groups of children who were participants in CANICA, a local NGO for street-working children in the city, and with one group of displaced Zapotec children from the region of Loxicha.1 The major focus of my research centres on this latter group; socially marginalised, displaced, and politically active, these children pose a considerable challenge to normative concepts of childhood and children's roles. Moreover, as participants in a political struggle these children do not fit the kind of participation envisaged by the CRC, local NGOs and the wider advocacy around children's rights, thus raising important questions regarding the limits of 'child participation' framed by articles 12 to 15 of the eRe. The field known as the New Sociology of Childhood Games, Jenks and Prout 1998; Qvortrup 1994), together with the international discourse and advocacy of children's rights, provide useful conceptual tools for the research. However, this thesis argues that normative, dichotomous, and largely Northern concepts of childhood are inadequate for the study of children's lives in Southern contexts such as Mexico. A key aim of the thesis is to explore the development of a Latin American sociology of childhood as a possible and more adequate framework for the study of children's lives in this region

Ethical dilemmas and reflexivity in qualitative research.

Context: For medical education researchers, a key concern may be the practicalities of gaining ethical approval where this is a national or local requirement. However, in qualitative studies, where the dynamics of human interaction pervade, ethical considerations are an ongoing process which continues long after approval has been granted. Responding to ethical dilemmas arising ‘in the moment’ requires a reflexive approach whereby the researcher questions his/her own motivations, assumptions and interests. Drawing on empirical studies and their experiences in academic and clinical research practice, the authors share their reflections on adhering to ethical principles throughout the research process to illustrate the complexities and nuances involved. Objectives and findings: These reflections offer critical insights into dilemmas arising in view of the ethical principles driving good conduct, and through domains which distinguish between procedural ethics, situational ethics, ethical relationships and ethical issues in exiting the study. The accounts consider integrity and altruism in research, gatekeeping and negotiating access, consent and confidentiality, power dynamics and role conflict, and challenges in dissemination of findings. The experiences are based on a range of examples of research in a UK context from managing difficult conversations in the classroom to video-ethnography in the operating theatre. Discussion and conclusions: These critical reflections make visible the challenges encountered and decisions that must be taken in the moment and on reflection after the event. Through sharing our experiences and debating the decisions we made, we offer insights into reflexivity in qualitative research which will be of value to others