Negotiating professional and social voices in research principles and practice

This paper draws on work conducted for a qualitative interview based study which explores the gendered racialised and professional identifications of health and social care professionals. Participants for the project were drawn from the professional executive committees of recently formed Primary Care Trusts. The paper discusses how the feminist psychosocial methodological approach developed for the project is theoretically, practically and ethically useful in exploring the voices of those in positions of relative power in relation to both health and social care services and the social relations of gender and ethnicity. The approach draws on psychodynamic accounts of (defended) subjectivity and the feminist work of Carol Gilligan on a voice-centred relational methodology. Coupling the feminist with the psychosocial facilitates an emphasis on voice and dialogic communication between participant and researcher not always captured in psychosocial approaches which tend towards favouring the interviewer as ‘good listener’. This emphasis on dialogue is important in research contexts where prior and ongoing relationships with professional participants make it difficult and indeed undesirable for researchers to maintain silence

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Val158Met Polymorphism Associates with Individual Differences in Sleep Physiologic Responses to Chronic Sleep Loss

Val158Met polymorphism was a novel marker in healthy adults of differential vulnerability to chronic partial sleep deprivation (PSD), a condition distinct from total sleep loss and one experienced by millions on a daily and persistent basis. allelic frequencies were higher in whites than African Americans.-related treatment responses and risk factors for symptom exacerbation

The Interplay Between Post-Critical Beliefs and Anxiety: An Exploratory Study in a Polish Sample

The present research investigates the relationship between anxiety and the religiosity dimensions that Wulff (Psychology of religion: classic and contemporary views, Wiley, New York, 1991; Psychology of religion. Classic and contemporary views, Wiley, New York, 1997; Psychologia religii. Klasyczna i współczesna, Wydawnictwo Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, Warszawa, 1999) described as Exclusion vs. Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal vs. Symbolic. The researchers used the Post-Critical Belief scale (Hutsebaut in J Empir Theol 9(2):48–66, 1996; J Empir Theol 10(1):39–54, 1997) to measure Wulff’s religiosity dimensions and the IPAT scale (Krug et al. 1967) to measure anxiety. Results from an adult sample (N = 83) suggest that three dimensions show significant relations with anxiety. Orthodoxy correlated negatively with suspiciousness (L) and positively with guilt proneness (O) factor—in the whole sample. Among women, Historical Relativism negatively correlated with suspiciousness (L), lack of integration (Q3), general anxiety and covert anxiety. Among men, Historical Relativism positively correlated with tension (Q4) and emotional instability (C), general anxiety, covert anxiety and overt anxiety. External Critique was correlated with suspiciousness (L) by men

Achieving Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Early Childhood Education Through Critical Reflection in Transformative Learning

The central role of education in creating a more sustainable future has been already recognized by educators and policy-makers alike. This chapter argues that this can only be truly achieved through the efforts of teachers in implementing an “education of a different kind,” a general educational shift that seeks to encompass a converging transformation of the priorities and mindsets of education professionals. In this regard, the professional preparation of teachers, as the leading actors in shaping children’s learning processes, and their continuous professional development are vital considerations for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to be successfully achieved. Linking transformative learning and ESD has emerged as a distinct and useful pedagogy because they both support the process of critically examining habits of mind, then revising these habits and acting upon the revised point of view. This study aims to describe and evaluate the potential of transformative learning in innovating mainstream education toward sustainability by focusing on the role of critical reflection in a capacity building research project realized in Turkey. The data was gathered from 24 early childhood educators using a mixed-method research design involving learning diaries, a learning activities survey, and follow-up interviews. This chapter identified content, context, and application method of the in-service training as factors that have contributed to the reflective practices of the participants. In addition, presenting the implications regarding the individual differences in how learners engage in critical reflection practices, this research offers a framework for a content- and process-based approach derived from Mezirow’s conception of critical reflection

ICT Changes Everything! But Who Changes ICT?

Information and communication technology (ICT) has a changing power and digitalization is gradually changing society in all aspects of life. Across the western world, men are in majority in the ICT industry, thus, the computer programs that change “everything” are most often made by men. Unless questioned, this male dominance can be perceived as a “norm” and becomes invisible. Against this background, this paper will provide three examples of how a feminist gaze can contribute to raise important questions and produce an awareness of how exclusion mechanisms have produce a highly homosocial tendency in design of ICT systems in the western world. The three cases illustrate how a feminist gaze leading to feminist interventions can make a difference in various ways. The first author presents a case study of a pilot for involving programming in public education in secondary schools in Norway, where a complete lack of gender awareness makes this an offer for boys in most schools. Author two presents a case study comparing the situation in the IT business in the UK and India, finding challenges not only to the situation in the western world, but also to white western feminism. Author three discusses alternative ways of involving women in ICT work, through practices of feminist pedagogy, emphasizing hands-on work

Questioning the relations between biography, theory and power in biographical teaching methods:a dialogue

This paper is structured around a dialogue between Hazel Wright, who is an experienced user and advocate of biographical teaching methods, and Paul Ashwin, who has some doubts about their benefits. A statement from Wright about the potential of biographical teaching methods is countered by Ashwin, who poses three challenges related to biographical teaching methods: the forms of biography that are legitimate; students’ relations to theory; and the impact of power relations. Wright responds to these by drawing on specific teaching–learning moments and the paper closes with an invitation to the reader to decide their position on the potential benefits and limitations of biographical teaching

The first year university experience: Using personal epistemology to understand effective learning and teaching in higher education

Personal epistemological beliefs, or beliefs about knowing, provide a way in which to understand learning in a range of educational contexts because they are considered to act as filters for all other knowledge and beliefs. In particular, they provide a useful framework for investigating learning and teaching for first year students in tertiary education, who are typically considered to hold less sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Using semi-structured interviews, this study investigated the nature of beliefs about knowing and learning of 35 first year teacher education and creative writing students at a large metropolitan university in Australia. The interview analysis indicated that a relationship existed between individuals’ core beliefs about knowing and their beliefs about learning. This relationship has implications for the way in which we support first year students’ learning as they transition into university and progress through their courses