The impact on teacher identity of international connections

Paper presented within the symposium: 'Changing teacher professionality through support for teacher leadership in Europe and beyond' at ECER 2014. This paper is linked to a doctoral study focussing on the impact of international networking and knowledge exchange on the professional identity of teachers. The perspective is shaped by the author’s experience of teacher union activity and involvement in international networking related to work for the British Council and the International Teacher Leadership initiative as well as on a twenty year career as a teacher. This paper involves analysis of data drawn from interviews with three teachers from Britain who have been involved in working with fellow teachers from other nations largely teachers from the Balkans. It explores the extent to which these teachers share a common professional identity with teachers from other nations and also whether this therefore constitutes a professional community. The paper includes a consideration of the implications for international networks and international teacher exchange programmes. It is also envisaged that the paper will support a discussion about ways in which the cultivation of international links may contribute to the global 'Education for All' campaign

Understanding professional community and professional identity through the experiences of Bahraini teachers working with British teachers in a partnership project

This paper is an exploration into the nature of the professional community that is formed when teachers from different nations work together. The research presented here consists of the findings from a small-scale exploratory case study that is the scoping study for a larger piece of research on this same theme. This larger piece of research is my doctoral study that I am currently undertaking at Cambridge University. This paper specifically involves the presentation of data drawn from interviews with teachers from Bahrain who have been involved in working with teachers from Britain via programmes run by the British Council and others. In this paper I discuss how identity is constructed within a professional community that crosses national boundaries. I conclude by suggesting that teachers who are working with colleagues from other nations build their professional identity together in innovative and exploratory ways. I also suggest that they actively construct professional communities with these colleagues and that they find this rewarding and significant. This paper responds to several of the identified themes of the ECER Conference 2015. These include ‘ways in which teachers learn and develop throughout their professional career’. In relation to this, this paper also addresses issues around the conference title 'education and transition'

Extrinsic Parameter Calibration for Line Scanning Cameras on Ground Vehicles with Navigation Systems Using a Calibration Pattern

Line scanning cameras, which capture only a single line of pixels, have been increasingly used in ground based mobile or robotic platforms. In applications where it is advantageous to directly georeference the camera data to world coordinates, an accurate estimate of the camera's 6D pose is required. This paper focuses on the common case where a mobile platform is equipped with a rigidly mounted line scanning camera, whose pose is unknown, and a navigation system providing vehicle body pose estimates. We propose a novel method that estimates the camera's pose relative to the navigation system. The approach involves imaging and manually labelling a calibration pattern with distinctly identifiable points, triangulating these points from camera and navigation system data and reprojecting them in order to compute a likelihood, which is maximised to estimate the 6D camera pose. Additionally, a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is used to estimate the uncertainty of the offset. Tested on two different platforms, the method was able to estimate the pose to within 0.06 m / 1.05$^{\circ}$ and 0.18 m / 2.39$^{\circ}$. We also propose several approaches to displaying and interpreting the 6D results in a human readable way.Comment: Published in MDPI Sensors, 30 October 201

Preliminary 1:500,000-scale geologic mapping of Claritas Fossae, Mars

The Claritas Fossae system is a complex, linear fracture zone that extends from its northern intersection with Noctis Labyrinthus 1800 km south-southeast to its southern intersection with Thaumasia Fossae. The width of the fracture zone varies from 150 km in the north to 550 km in the south; topographic relief, based on radar data from Earth, is 1.0 to 1.5 km. Claritas Fossae and its coincident ridge or rise have been interpreted to be a horst with more than 8 km of vertical uplift, the greatest such uplift on Mars. Viking orbital images of sufficiently high resolution exist to provide the basis only for two 1:500,000 scale photomosaic base maps of Claritas Fossae. They extend en in echelon east and west, i.e., the southeast corner of the northern and western quadrangle (MTM-30102) is coincident with the northwest corner of the eastern and southern quadrangle (MTM-25107). Preliminary geologic maps of the two quadrangles were prepared. Materials in the quadrangles are Noachian and Hesperian age, and the quadrangles are characterized by the widespread occurrence of fractured and cratered plateau material, the oldest material in the map areas. Other information about the quadrangles is presented

Al Umchaimin depression, Western Iraq: An impact structure?

Al Umchaimin, in Arabic 'hiding place' or 'place of ambush', is located at latitude 32 degrees 35.5 N and longitude 39 degrees 25 E. The nearly circular depression averages 2.75 km in diameter and is 33-42 m deep. It is floored with fine-grained, clay-rich deposits, estimated to be 36 m thick, the surface of which shows well-developed desiccation fissures or mudcracks when dry. Because of its nearly circular planimetric shape and its apparent isolation from other surface and subsurface features, it has been considered by some to be a possible meteorite impact structure and by others to be a surface collapse feature that originated following removal of magma from the subsurface as the magma extruded elsewhere. Al Umchaimin was listed in the U.S. Geological Survey tabulation of 110 structures worldwide for which a meteorite impact origin had been suggested. It was placed in Category 6 Structures for which more data are required for classification. It is concluded that, on the basis of the studies that have been made of Al Umchaimin and on the basis of the brief site visit made, Al Umchaimin probably is not an impact structure but most likely resulted from the enlargement and coalescence of sink holes and eventual collapse of the roof material into the resulting cavity

Book Review: 'Only Connect': Belonging and Estrangement in the Poetry of Philip Larkin, R. S. Thomas and Charles Causley by Rory Waterman

Rory Waterman intriguingly combines discussions of Philip Larkin, R. S. Thomas, and Charles Causley, three poets who 'epitomize many of the emotional and societal shifts and mores of their age', in the hope of making possible 'new and persuasive readings'. Focussed conceptually on belonging and estrangement, the book's six chapters explore literary traditions and audience; geographical and cultural origins; relationships, particularly marriage

'A Kind of Homosexual Relation, Disguised': Larkin's Letters to Monica Jones

This essay reads Philip Larkin’s letters to his lifelong companion, Monica Jones, in order to present an alternative to the ‘easy misogynist’ and ‘crusty’ Tory caricatured and condemned by critics for more than two decades. Exploring Larkin’s textual construction of selfhood in these letters, the essay looks at the apolitical nature of the correspondence, its subtly-gendered experience of the everyday, and its surprisingly subversive view of sex and sexuality. Anti-essentialist in his approach to gender, Larkin projects a feminine, almost lesbian sensibility. However, by adopting a text-centred approach to the correspondence, this essay also highlights the way in which Larkin’s constructed persona obscures and conceals – against the grain of the critical response so far, which has privileged the letters as exceptional in their vulnerability and revealing intimacy