Risk in Postgraduate writing: voice discourse and edgework

This paper brings writing into the contested space of research and knowledge-making in South Africa. An often hidden dimension of research is that it has to find expression in a written product, increasingly in English. This creates challenges for both students, who have developed writing identities in other domains, disciplines and languages, and also supervisors and journal editors who are gatekeepers for the making of new knowledge. In a competitive and uncertain climate where discourses of risk management play an increasingly important part, people tend to play it safe when it comes to writing, conforming to a narrow image of scientific writing. This has consequences for knowledge-making as students often set aside the experiences, allegiances and styles they have developed along the way. Drawing on data from an international publishing project on risk in academic writing, the paper explores dilemmas around the process of research writing. These instances make the contradictions and tensions faced by writers and gatekeepers central, highlighting the importance of voice and risk. Both voice and risk are explored experientially and theoretically, with the emphasis on the potentials of risk. The concept of risk, not as risk management, but as risk-taking, offers new ways of thinking about writing that brings the decisions that writers and readers make to the fore. A focus on risk has the potential to offer new understandings about the changing landscapes in which writers and readers weigh up their options against notions of what is 'normal'. Finally I suggest edgework as a productive concept that can take work on risk forward in both research and pedagogy

Researching 'ideological becoming' in lectures: challenges for knowing differently

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Studies in Higher Education on 22 May 2009. Available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/03075070902771929.This article is a response to Haggis's injunction to 'know differently' if we are to grow our understandings of student learning. It identifies concerns that have arisen in the course of research into engagement (conceived of as 'ideological becoming') in first year lectures in the humanities at a South African university. These issues include: (a) how the co-presence of students and lecturer challenges conventional notions of 'student learning' as other; (b) the theoretical and practical challenges related to identifying fleeting 'liminal moments' in situations in which students and lecturers are co-present; and (c) what we can learn from a view of academic engagement as distributed across time and place. The tool of entextualisation is used to track participants' 'interest' across sites. The article offers a view of learning as embodied, emergent and contested, rather than neatly packaged and predictable

Voices in discourse: Re-thinking shared meaning in academic writing

As a teacher of academic literacy, the researcher is involved in initiating non-traditional students into academic language practices--the academic 'conversation'. This study approaches mediation in a way that takes student diversity into account. This is done through an exploration of the relationship between the biographies of speakers of English as an additional language and their experience of writing academic essays in the faculties of Arts and Social Science at the University of Cape Town. In order to explore this relationship, the research draws on ethnographic methodology, and takes place in different locations. The first is in the curriculum in the form of a discourse analysis of an assignment which required personal writing in an introductory course to English I. The focus is on meaning exchange in context (discourse). The second involves biographical interviews with 13 students on the same course. Here the focus is on the transitions in their lives, and on their views on academic writing and identity. The emphasis is on the voice of the individual. The third area involves bringing voice and discourse together in interviews with three students about their assignments on the introductory course. Students were asked about the influences visible in the linguistic surface of their writing. The study concludes that if the academic conversation is to be open to a full exchange of meaning which includes the participation of voices traditionally excluded, there need to be new ways of thinking about discourse while emphasising the importance of voice and agency. The consequences of this are examined in three areas: a) research, b) research-as-curriculum and c) curriculum in the areas of task design, referencing and evaluation

Everything Changes, But It All Stays the Same. Labour Market Parties, Corporatism and Norwegian Sick Pay Policies 1978–2014

Since the adoption of a generous and universal sick pay scheme in 1978, the key elements of Norwegian sick pay policies have remained the same. The present study focuses on the gradual developments in welfare corporatism and policymaking during this period, arguing that these changes paved the way for new and surprising strategies and behaviour among the labour market parties. Tracking several retrenchment attempts across decades, the analyses show how policymaking in corporatist committees was gradually replaced by less predictable processes. Successive governments of different colors have tried to bypass the social partners and legislate hierarchically, thus signaling a break with traditional corporatist norms and decision rules. Labour and business groups adapted by negotiating a pact that kept the existing distribution of economic risks in the sick pay scheme off the political agenda, and by backing each other and creating negative attention to government in the media to protect the pact. In sum, although sick pay policies have remained largely unchanged, this is a status quo upheld by processes of welfare policymaking that have changed substantially. The pact between the social partners and the state is currently a new vetopoint for welfare policymaking. But the piecemeal institutional transformation witnessed in this period, together with the need for conflictual media strategies and new alliances to protect the pact, suggest that it could be a fragile veto-point.publishedVersio

Lectures in transition : a study of communicative practices in the humanities in a South African university

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-226).The lecture is usually seen as an anachronism, out of step with contemporary trends in student learning and communication. However it remains a defining space in higher education, particularly in the first year experience. This study is a re-description of the lecture; it explores the tensions and silences that underlie what lectures do and mean in the lives of participants (both students with diverse language and educational histories, and their lecturers) in the humanities in a time of intense sociopolitical transition in a space envisaged as a contact zone, characterized by asymmetrical relations of power. It asks how participants engage with the communicative practices in and around lectures. Conceptually the study is rooted in the academic literacies field within the New Literacy Studies with its interest in the politics of student access to valued textual practices. The study draws from the following complementary traditions: a) theories of dialogic co-presence (Bakhtin, Goffman) that foreground how all communication is oriented to ‘the other’; b) social semiotics (Kress and van Leeuwen) with its emphasis on participants’ ‘interest’ – what social agents do, and how they make do, with available resources for meaning that include image, gaze and gesture, as well as spoken and written language; c) ritualization theory (Bell, McLaren), and how bodies mediate in practices

Intake of marine fatty acids in early life and risk of celiac disease

Background: About 1% of the European population are affected by celiac disease (CD). Intake of omega-3 fatty acids in early life has been associated with lower risk of other immune-mediated diseases in children, but there are limited studies on CD. The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate if maternal intake of EPA and DHA during pregnancy, from food and/or supplements, was associated with risk of CD in the offspring. The secondary aim was to investigate if children`s use of cod liver oil, at 6 months and at 18 months, was associated with risk of CD. Material and methods: In the analysis of maternal intakes, 85,592 children from The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) were included. Intakes of EPA and DHA had been calculated from a food frequency questionnaire in mid-pregnancy. In the analyses of children`s use of cod liver oil, at 6 months and at 18 months, 87,056 and 72,188 children from MoBa were included, respectively. Information about use of cod liver oil was obtained from questionnaires. CD status was obtained from the Norwegian Patient Registry and questionnaires. Binary log-linear regression was used to estimate relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations with CD. Results: Of the children included in the analysis of maternal intakes, 965 (1.1%) were diagnosed with CD. Median maternal intakes of EPA and DHA were 0.22 and 0.34 g/day, respectively, and 68% used supplements containing EPA and DHA. Use of supplements was significantly associated with increased risk of CD in the offspring (adjusted RR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.02–1.37). Intake of EPA and DHA from food was significantly associated with reduced risk of CD in the offspring, per g/d increase in intake, in the unadjusted analysis (RR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.68-0.99), but the association did not remain significant after adjustment. Total intake (food and supplements) of EPA and DHA was not associated with risk of CD in the offspring. Of the children included in the analyses of use of cod liver oil, at 6 months and at 18 months, 976 (1.1%) and 832 (1.2%) were diagnosed with CD, respectively. At 6 months of age, 53% used cod liver oil, and 56% used it at 18 months of age. No associations were observed between children`s use of cod liver oil and risk of CD. Conclusion: Maternal use of supplements containing EPA and DHA during pregnancy was significantly associated with increased risk of CD in the offspring. However, the observed effect was small and due to this, the clinical relevance is limited. Further research on the potential relationship between intake of EPA and DHA in early life and risk of CD are needed

“Applications of Coherent Electron Beams

The use of coherent beams for interferometric measurements has gained great popularity in light optics over the last several decades. The availability of coherent electron sources has now opened the door to apply the concept of holographic imaging in many new areas. Off-axis holograms can now be recorded in field emission transmission electron microscopes equipped with the electron optical equivalent of a biprism. This technique allows the accurate retrieval of phase and amplitude of the electron wave, which has been transmitted through a sample. The sensitivity of the phase of the electron wave to electrical potentials makes it possible to map out potential distributions on the specimen with sub-micron resolution. As part of this thesis, off-axis electron holography has been applied to map out the small potential changes, which occur over pn-junctions in doped semiconductor devices. To this end a special alignment of the electron microscope has been devised, and new methods for preparing electron transparent samples of semiconductor devices, specially tailored for electron holography, have been developed. Also, new ways to improve on the existing electron biprism technology have been investigated. The observed voltage signals could be linked to active dopants in silicon by annealing experiments, and the viability of the method for voltage profiling of real-world semiconductor devices has been demonstrated. The use of coherent electron emitters also allows the recording of in-line electron holograms in a lens-less projection microscope at ultra-low beam energies. Such a point projection microscope, which is capable of recording in-line holograms in transmission imaging, has been built. With defect review on silicon wafers as a possible application for in-line electron holography in mind, the feasibility of point projection imaging in a reflection geometry has been demonstrated. In this context the elastic backscattered yield for electrons in different materials and under different geometries has been calculated using Monte Carlo simulations. Several problems, which occur in reflection imaging, are pointed out and possible solutions are presented

Electoral Systems and Gender Inequality in Political News: Analyzing the News Visibility of Members of Parliament in Norway and the UK

Research continues to find gender inequality in politics and political communication, but our understanding of the variation in the degree of bias across systems is limited. A recent meta-analysis reveals how, in countries with proportional representation (PR), the media pay considerably more attention to men politicians. In plurality systems, this bias is absent. The present study proposes a new explanation for this finding, emphasizing how the size of electoral districts moderates both the demand for and supply of women politicians in news reporting. Analyzing more than 600,000 news appearances made by Norwegian and British MPs from 2000 to 2016, we produce a detailed picture of gender biases in news visibility that speaks in favor of single-member districts in plurality systems. Although PR is generally recognized as advantageous for the political representation of women, our findings call for a more nuanced understanding of the link between electoral systems and gender equality.publishedVersio

Influence of Random Internal Fields on the Tunneling of OH Defects in NaCl Crystals

Alkali halide crystals doped with certain impurity ions show a low temperature behaviour, which differs significantly from that of pure crystals. The origin of these characteristic differences are tunneling centers formed by atomic or molecular impurity ions. We have investigated the dielectric susceptibility of hydroxyl ions in NaCl crystals at very low concentrations (below 30 ppm), where interactions are believed to be negligible. We find that the temperature dependence of the susceptibility is noticeably different from what one would expect for isolated defects in a symmetric environment. We propose that the origin of these deviations are random internal strains arising from imperfections of the host crystal. We will present the experimental data and a theoretical model which allows a quantitative understanding on a microscopic basis.Comment: 3 pages 3 figures, REVTeX, submitted to the proceedings of the PHONONS 2001 conferenc