Cultural Competence in Transnational Settings & Quality Education for American Indians: Anatomy of Challenges

This article juxtaposes the lived experiences of two educators newly immersed in very different work environments. One of the educators, one coming from a British education background, looks at the anomalies of communication, work practice, and student expectations at a university located in the southern United States. The second educator, working in a K-12 school system on an American-Indian reservation in Arizona, looks at the challenges of NCLB, ELL, curricula, assessment methods, dropout rates, and funding. Upon examination of the issues of a quality and fair education for American Indians, it becomes clear that teachers have to bring an existential-phenomenological perspective. The wide-ranging conversations articulate the necessity for educators to develop a practical anthropology of practice of their work environment and culture

Disrupting colonial discourses in the Geography curriculum during the introduction of British Values policy in schools

The main purpose of this article is to expose and disrupt discourses dominating global development in an English school geography textbook chapter. The study was prompted by a teacher’s encounter with cultural difference in a geography lesson in South Korea. I investigate the issues raised through the lens of a new curriculum policy in English schools called ‘Promoting Fundamental British Values’ which forms part of England’s education-securitisation agenda, a topic of international attention. Following contextualisation across research fields and in recent curriculum and assessment policy reform, I bring together theoretical perspectives from curriculum studies and Continental philosophy that do not usually speak to each other, to construct a new analytical approach. I identify three key themes, each informed by colonial logic: ‘development’, ‘numerical indicators’ and ‘learning to divide the world’. The inquiry appears to expose a tension between the knowledge of the textbook chapter and the purported aims of the British Values curriculum policy, but further investigation reveals the two to be connected through common colonial values. The findings are relevant to teachers, publishers, textbook authors, policy makers and curriculum researchers. I recommend a refreshed curriculum agenda with the politics of knowledge and ethical global relations at its centre

Literacia histórica e história transformativa

Resumo A Educação Histórica, como a própria história, é uma conquista precária; é vulnerável a agendas políticas e educacionais que procuram mesclá-la com outras partes do currículo ou reduzi-la a um veículo para a cidadania ou valores comuns patrióticos. Se tivermos a expectativa de nos engajarmos em uma discussão séria na Educação Histórica em face destes desafios, devemos evitar lemas polares como "tradicional versus progressista", "centrado na criança versus centrado na matéria" e "habilidades versus conteúdo", que têm produzido muita confusão na literatura. Em particular, deve-se evitar falar de competências, com a sua infeliz concessão de licenças a convenientes e tolos currículos genéricos. A história é uma forma pública de conhecimento e o desenvolvimento de uma tradição metacognitiva, com as suas próprias normas e critérios. Há evidências que sugerem que a história é contraintuitiva e que entendê-la envolve a alteração ou até mesmo o abandono de ideias cotidianas que tornam o conhecimento do passado impossível. Consequentemente o ensino de história envolve o desenvolvimento de um aparato conceitual de segunda ordem que permite que a história siga em frente, em vez de imobilizá-la e, ao fazê-lo, abre a perspectiva de mudança de uma visão cotidiana da natureza e do estado do conhecimento do passado para uma de conhecimento histórico. Isto nos permite dar conta do que significa saber um pouco de história - um provisório conceito de literacia histórica - como um aprendizado de uma compreensão disciplinar da história, como a aquisição das disposições que derivam e impulsionam essa compreensão histórica e como o desenvolvimento de uma imagem do passado, que permite que os alunos se orientem no tempo. Existem pesquisas para informar o debate sobre o primeiro componente, mas há pouco disponível para o segundo. Há um interesse atual considerável no terceiro componente, mas o debate centrou-se sobre a questão perene da "ignorância" das crianças, em vez de reconhecer que o problema é encontrar maneiras de permitir que os alunos adquiram passados ​históricos utilizáveis que não são histórias fixas. A obtenção de literacia histórica potencialmente transforma a visão de mundo de crianças (e de adultos) e permite ações até então - literalmente - inconcebíveis para eles. Entender a importância disto para o ensino da história significa abandonar hábitos de pensar com base em um presente instantâneo, em que uma forma de apartheid temporal separa o passado do presente e do futuro. Significa, também, desencaixotar as formas em que a história pode transformar como vemos o mundo. Tais transformações podem ser dramáticas em longas extensões ou mais localizadas e específicas. Elas podem mudar a forma como vemos oportunidades e constrangimentos políticos ou sociais, a nossa própria identidade ou dos outros, a nossa percepção das feridas e fardos que herdamos e a adequação das explicações das principais características do nosso mundo. Elas podem sugerir revisões constrangedoras do nosso entendimento e expectativas de como o mundo humano funciona. E elas podem nos ajudar a conhecer melhor o que não dizer. Literacia histórica envolve tratar o passado como uma ecologia temporal interconectada capaz de suportar uma gama indefinida de histórias, não apenas algo que usamos para contar a história que melhor se adapte aos nossos objetivos e desejos imediatos. Como outras formas públicas de conhecimento, a história é uma tradição metacognitiva que as pessoas têm lutado longa e duramente para desenvolver e ser capaz de praticar. É uma conquista frágil, a ser tratada com respeito e cuidado nas escolas

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

An exploration of the role of ethnic identity in students’ construction of ‘British stories’

Much of the research into history teaching and ethnicity concludes that the historical narratives that children from minority ethnic groups construct differ significantly from ‘mainstream’ or official national narratives and are often accompanied by a sense of disengagement or even alienation from the dominant history narratives taught in schools. Our research suggests that in England (or more specifically in London) the picture is more complicated than this. First, we did not find compelling evidence that students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds feel alienated or disengaged from the British history they are taught. Second, we found a surprising similarity across the narratives that different ethnic groups chose to tell us about British history, suggesting amongst other things some curriculum inertia in schools. Where differences did exist, we suggest that these can be explained as much by gender and broad cultural influences as by ethnicity. Third, whilst what students chose to include in their narratives was broadly similar across different ethnic groups, the reasons for including them did differ. Finally, and perhaps most positively, we conclude that students of all ethnic groups are keen to engage more critically with British narratives and would relish more opportunities to do so than current school curricula appear to encourage

Summary of the first neutron image data collected at the National Ignition Facility

A summary of data and results from the first neutron images produced by the National Ignition Facility (NIF), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA are presented. An overview of the neutron imaging technique is presented, as well as a synopsis of data and measurements made to date. Data from directly driven, DT filled microballoons, as well as indirectly driven, cryogenically layered ignition experiments are presented. The data show that the primary cores from directly driven implosions are approximately twice as large, 64 ± 3 μm, as indirectly driven cores, 25 ± 4 and 29 ± 4 μm and more asymmetric, P2/P0 = 47% vs. − 14% and 7%. Further, comparison with the size and shape of X-ray image data on the same implosions show good agreement, indicating X-ray emission is dominated by the hot regions of the implosion

Comparing neutron and X-ray images from NIF implosions

Directly laser driven and X-radiation driven DT filled capsules differ in the relationship between neutron and X-ray images. Shot N110217, a directly driven DT-filled glass micro-balloon provided the first neutron images at the National Ignition Facility. As seen in implosions on the Omega laser, the neutron image can be enclosed inside time integrated X-ray images. HYDRA simulations show the X-ray image is dominated by emission from the hot glass shell while the neutron image arises from the DT fuel it encloses. In the absence of mix or jetting, X-ray images of a cryogenically layered THD fuel capsule should be dominated by emission from the hydrogen rather than the cooler plastic shell that is separated from the hot core by cold DT fuel. This cool, dense DT, invisible in X-ray emission, shows itself by scattering hot core neutrons. Germanium X-ray emission spectra and Ross pair filtered X-ray energy resolved images suggest that germanium doped plastic emits in the torus shaped hot spot, probably reducing the neutron yield

Summary of the first neutron image data collected at the National Ignition Facility

A summary of data and results from the first neutron images produced by the National Ignition Facility (NIF), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA are presented. An overview of the neutron imaging technique is presented, as well as a synopsis of the data collected and measurements made to date. Data form directly driven, DT filled microballoons, as well as, indirectly driven, cryogenically layered ignition experiments are presented. The data presented show that the primary cores from directly driven implosions are approximately twice as large, 64 {+-} 3 {mu}m, as indirect cores 25 {+-} 4 and 29 {+-} 4 {mu}m and more asymmetric, P2/P0 = 47% vs. -14% and 7%. Further, comparison with the size and shape of X-ray image data on the same implosions show good agreement, indicating X-ray emission is dominated by the hot regions of the implosion

Nuclear imaging of the fuel assembly in ignition experiments

First results from the analysis of neutron image data collected on implosions of cryogenically layered deuterium-tritium capsules during the 2011-2012 National Ignition Campaign are reported. The data span a variety of experimental designs aimed at increasing the stagnation pressure of the central hotspot and areal density of the surrounding fuel assembly. Images of neutrons produced by deuterium-tritium fusion reactions in the hotspot are presented, as well as images of neutrons that scatter in the surrounding dense fuel assembly. The image data are compared with 1D and 2D model predictions, and consistency checked using other diagnostic data. The results indicate that the size of the fusing hotspot is consistent with the model predictions, as well as other imaging data, while the overall size of the fuel assembly, inferred from the scattered neutron images, is systematically smaller than models' prediction. Preliminary studies indicate these differences are consistent with a significant fraction (20%-25%) of the initial deuterium-tritium fuel mass outside the compact fuel assembly, due either to low mode mass asymmetry or high mode 3D mix effects at the ablator-ice interface