Citizenship education in English secondary schools: teaching and learning to transform or conform?

This qualitative exploration of understandings of active citizenship in educational contexts reports on interviews with pupils and teachers in six English secondary schools. It sets out to trouble the foundations of citizenship education by tapping into the meanings that citizenship takes on in schools. This thesis therefore engages with the contested concept of citizenship at the level of its interpretation in schools and argues that the tradition of agonistic debate over core citizenship issues should be reflected in educational practice. Insights from critical pedagogy are drawn upon to imagine a transformative educational process with which the practices described by participants might be compared. This focus adds depth to the existing body of research, which has tended towards a pre-occupation with outcomes. The analysis asks: how active are pupils’ and teachers’ understandings of citizenship? and what forms of knowledge are engaged with to construct conceptions of active citizenship in schools? The argument is made for a more nuanced understanding of the value of citizenship in schools, through which the edifying contributions of engagement with the political and the personal might be recognised and nurtured. Mouffe’s radical democratic citizenship offers an account of citizenship as an ongoing process through which this goal might be achieved. It is ventured that the current culture within education policy for schools in England is unlikely to accommodate such a radical approach as learners’ agency is neutralised by pedagogical models that are fundamentally resistant to the practice of citizenship through educational processes but instead serve an instrumental agenda of manufacturing ‘model citizens’. This form of education may equip young people to appear as citizens, as they follow the model presented to them, but such imitation is a departure from the original aims of introducing citizenship to schools; and, it is argued, anathema to true democratic participation

Brave new brains: sociology, family and the politics of knowledge

This article critically explores sociological arguments for greater biosocial synthesis, centring contemporary developments in public policy to demonstrate how such a reframing of humanity tends to reinforce existing political orders and socially patterned normativities. The case for further amalgamation of the social and life sciences is examined to suggest that production of somatic markers of truth from relational encounters largely relies upon an anaemic and politically contained version of the social as acquired in early childhood. More specifically, the gendered, classed and culturally specific practice of parenting children has come to occupy a new significance in accounts of social brains and environmentally reactive genomes. This is highlighted through a discussion of ‘early intervention’ as a heavily biologized policy rationale framing opportunities for biosocial collaboration. It is argued that late capitalist objectives of personal investment and optimization are driving this assimilation of the social and life sciences, pursuing an agenda that traces and re-scores long-standing social divisions in the name of progress

The Trouble With Big Data

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Trinity College Dublin, DARIAH-EU and the European Commission. This book explores the challenges society faces with big data, through the lens of culture rather than social, political or economic trends, as demonstrated in the words we use, the values that underpin our interactions, and the biases and assumptions that drive us. Focusing on areas such as data and language, data and sensemaking, data and power, data and invisibility, and big data aggregation, it demonstrates that humanities research, focussing on cultural rather than social, political or economic frames of reference for viewing technology, resists mass datafication for a reason, and that those very reasons can be instructive for the critical observation of big data research and innovation

School leaders, community cohesion and the Big Society

This report summarises research conducted on community cohesion in English schools in 2010. The research uses an opportunity sample of 27 primary and secondary schools in three local authorities to generate insights on how the duty to promote community cohesion has been interpreted, enacted and accounted for since its beginning in 2007. The significance of this report is not in the sample size or spectrum but in the themes that emerged from semi-structured interviews. A related document, Teaching, Learning and Community Cohesion: a study of primary and secondary schools’ responses to a new statutory duty, which provides guidance for teachers and school leaders, is also published by CfBT (Rowe et al, 2011). The background to the duty to promote community cohesion, including its inception as a policy and its roots in other measures, is discussed in an opening section. The findings from group and individual interviews with teachers and school senior leaders are analysed under themed headings. Finally, some pointers for future policy development, including links with the ‘Big Society’ agenda, are discussed. The main messages of this report are that: • nearly all teachers and schools welcome community cohesion and agree personally and professionally with its underpinning values, although they interpret the duty very differently, according to their school context and present practice • schools have had varied success in implementing the duty, paying more attention to action than to underlying social policy coherence, but in most cases the duty and the fact that it was to be inspected has resulted in schools developing and improving their provision • some teachers are not clear about current guidance and inspection criteria, while a small number of teachers have objections to the legal and/or inspectable status of the duty • strong resonances and opportunities exist for the development of schools’ achievements in the light of the recent Education White Paper (Department for Education, 2010), a growing focus on localism (CLG, 2010) and the emergent policy focus on the Big Societ

Sight loss and Minimum Income Standards: the additional costs of severity and age

This research uses the Minimum Income Standards (MIS) method to calculate the additional costs of living for different groups of people with visual impairment. It shows how additional costs increase with severity of impairment and age, and that costs increase further when these two factors combine. The research, funded by Thomas Pocklington Trust, is based on deliberation among groups of people with sight loss about additions that need to be made to the standard MIS household budget because of their visual impairment. The report outlines how much extra they need to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living. Working age people who are visually impaired face 25% higher costs if they are sight impaired, and 60% higher costs if they are severely sight impaired compared to people of the same age who are not visually impaired. For someone of pension age who is sight impaired costs can be 42% more than people of pension age who are not visually impaired, this increases to 73% more for a pension age person who is severely sight impaired. The research highlights the broad range of additional costs that people who are visually impaired face – from direct aids to help with sight loss, help in the home, to travel and social activities - and variations in needs and costs when severity of impairment and age are taken into account

A Minimum Income Standard for London 2016/17

This study explored with groups of London families what households in Inner and Outer London need for a minimum acceptable standard of living, and calculated the difference in minimum costs between London and the rest of the UK

Intravaginal Practices, Vaginal Infections and HIV Acquisition: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Intravaginal practices are commonly used by women to manage their vaginal health and sexual life. These practices could, however, affect intravaginal mucosal integrity. The objectives of this study were to examine evidence for associations between: intravaginal practices and acquisition of HIV infection; intravaginal practices and vaginal infections; and vaginal infections and HIV acquisition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a systematic review of prospective longitudinal studies, searching 15 electronic databases of journals and abstracts from two international conferences to 31(st) January 2008. Relevant articles were selected and data extracted in duplicate. Results were examined visually in forest plots and combined using random effects meta-analysis where appropriate. Of 2120 unique references we included 22 publications from 15 different studies in sub-Saharan Africa and the USA. Seven publications from five studies examined a range of intravaginal practices and HIV infection. No specific vaginal practices showed a protective effect against HIV or vaginal infections. Insertion of products for sex was associated with HIV in unadjusted analyses; only one study gave an adjusted estimate, which showed no association (hazard ratio 1.09, 95% confidence interval, CI 0.71, 1.67). HIV incidence was higher in women reporting intravaginal cleansing but confidence intervals were wide and heterogeneity high (adjusted hazard ratio 1.88, 95%CI 0.53, 6.69, I(2) 83.2%). HIV incidence was higher in women with bacterial vaginosis (adjusted effect 1.57, 95%CI 1.26, 1.94, I(2) 19.0%) and Trichomonas vaginalis (adjusted effect 1.64, 95%CI 1.28, 2.09, I(2) 0.0%). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A pathway linking intravaginal cleaning practices with vaginal infections that increase susceptibility to HIV infection is plausible but conclusive evidence is lacking. Intravaginal practices do not appear to protect women from vaginal infections or HIV and some might be harmful

Early Intervention and Evidence-Based Policy and Practice: Framing and taming

In this article, we highlight some critical matters in the way that an issue is framed as a problem in policymaking and the consequent means of taming that problem, in focussing on the use and implications of neuroscientific discourse of brain claims in early intervention policy and practice. We draw on three sets of analyses: of the contradictory set of motifs framing the state of ‘evidence’ of what works in intervention in the early years; of the (mis)use of neuroscientific discourse to frame deficient parenting as causing inequalities and support particular policy directions; and of the way that early years practitioners adopt brain claims to tame the problem of deficient parenting. We argue that using expedient brain claims as a framing and taming justification is entrenching gendered and classed understandings and inequalities

A grumbling concern: an international survey of gastrointestinal symptoms in cystic fibrosis in the modulator era [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]

Background: Gastrointestinal symptoms in cystic fibrosis (CF) are common and intrusive to daily life. Relieving gastrointestinal symptoms was identified as an important research priority and previously explored in an international survey in 2018. However, following the widespread introduction of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) modulators in 2019, the landscape of CF treatment has changed. We repeated an online survey to further describe gastrointestinal symptoms and their effect on quality of life (QoL) in the CFTR modulator era. Methods: An electronic survey consisting of closed questions and free text responses was distributed via social media and professional networks for a period of one month between March - April 2022. People with CF (pwCF), their family and friends, and healthcare professionals (HCPs) were invited to take part. Results: There were 164 respondents: 88 pwCF (54%), 22 (13%) family, and 54 (33%) healthcare professionals (HCPs). A total of 89/110 (81%) pwCF or family members reported CFTR modulator treatment. The most commonly reported symptoms were wind / gas, rumbling stomach noises, loose motions (modulator) and bloating (no modulator). Abdominal pain and bloating had the greatest impact on QoL. For those on a CFTR modulator, the proportion of pwCF reporting “no change” or “worse” for all of the symptoms surveyed was greater than the proportion reporting an improvement. Following modulator introduction, dietary changes were recommended by 28/35 (80%) of HCPs and reported by 38/76 (50%) lay respondents. Changes in medication were recommended by 19/35 (54%) HCPs and reported by 44/76 (58%) of patients and family members. Conclusion This survey has shown that gastrointestinal symptoms remain prevalent in pwCF in the CFTR modulator era, though the nature of these symptoms may have changed. A better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of these symptoms is essential. Future clinical studies should focus on improving symptoms and QoL

Transport coefficients and resonances for a meson gas in Chiral Perturbation Theory

We present recent results on a systematic method to calculate transport coefficients for a meson gas (in particular, we analyze a pion gas) at low temperatures in the context of Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT). Our method is based on the study of Feynman diagrams taking into account collisions in the plasma by means of the non-zero particle width. This implies a modification of the standard ChPT power counting scheme. We discuss the importance of unitarity, which allows for an accurate high energy description of scattering amplitudes, generating dynamically the $\rho (770)$ and $f_0(600)$ mesons. Our results are compatible with analyses of kinetic theory, both in the non-relativistic very low-$T$ regime and near the transition. We show the behavior with temperature of the electrical and thermal conductivities as well as of the shear and bulk viscosities. We obtain that bulk viscosity is negligible against shear viscosity, except near the chiral phase transition where the conformal anomaly might induce larger bulk effects. Different asymptotic limits for transport coefficients, large-$N_c$ scaling and some applications to heavy-ion collisions are studied.Comment: Invited talk given at the international workshop Hot Quarks 2008, Estes Park, Colorado, USA, August 18-23 2008. Accepted as a regular article in Eur.Phys.J.C. 18 pages EPJC style, 23 figure