Critical Intersections through Poetry in a TESOL & World Language Graduate Education Program

In this studio submission, Language Education students who took one or more poetry writing courses along with their instructor share one poem draft and critical reflection, noting the political climate of the work co-produced and inquiry regarding the impact of producing creative work as reflexive, critical teacher education scholarship. Together they draw a context and implications for creative and critical teacher education through shared poetry writing

Enhancing communication between dementia care staff and their residents: an arts-inspired intervention

Objectives: The arts are increasingly recognised as important and beneficial activities for people living with dementia. However, there is little peer-reviewed published research exploring arts-based learning for dementia care staff. In response, this paper explores (a) how dementia care staff describe forms of communication in care settings, and (b) the impact on communication following four sessions of ‘Creative Conversations’, an arts-based intervention for skills development. Method: Fourteen care homes received the intervention, delivered as 4 × 2 hour sessions. The intervention uses a range of activities (e.g. poetry, film, music, art making). Twenty–eight care staff were opportunistically sampled (mean age = 42.29), and provided pre-post qualitative data, obtained through interviews. Transcripts were analysed thematically. Results: At baseline, the dominant ‘task-focussed’ nature of care work was described as a barrier to communication, challenging opportunities for developing meaningful relationships with residents. Post-intervention, three primary themes were identified regarding improving communication: (1) learning through the arts (secondary themes: simplicity and subtlety, innovation in communication, and strengthening the role of non-verbal communication), (2) Enhancing creative approaches to care (secondary themes: element of surprise, confidence to experiment and catalyst for communication) and (3) professional introspection (secondary themes: development of empathy, sharing knowledge and experiences and a new appreciation). Conclusions: The intervention validated staff skills and confidence, enabling meaningful interactions that could be creative, ‘in the moment’, spontaneous and improvised. This arts-based intervention, which departs from formal education and fact-based learning may be particularly useful for the development of the dementia care workforce

Community-based arts research for people with learning disabilities: challenging misconceptions about learning disabilities

This article presents some of the community-based artwork of a group of men with learning disabilities, who aimed to challenge some of the misconceptions associated with learning disabilities. People with learning disabilities regularly face many forms of direct and indirect stigma. The consequences of such negative perceptions may affect individuals’ social relationships and ensure that barriers are strengthened which prevent their full inclusion. The men in this project used a series of visual and creative methods to challenge some of these misconceptions by telling stories through art, demonstrating skill through photography, using poetry to talk about sexual identity and improvising drama and filmmaking to challenge stigma, and through sculpture expressed their voices. Thus, by doing so, they were able to challenge some of the stigma associated with learning disabilities, indicating that community-based arts research is a valuable way in which to promote the voices of people with learning disabilities

Exploring the place of arts-based approaches in early childhood education research

Defined broadly as the use of art forms – music, drama, music, painting, storying and so on – to create privileged insight into educational policies and practices, Arts-Based Educational Research [ABER] techniques have started to have some, albeit limited, purchase on the mainstream of educational enquiry; there is less evidence, however, of their use in early childhood research. This article critically outlines some chief characteristics of an ABER approach, its claim to legitimacy in the currency of qualitative research practice and the issues which presently both drive and challenge it. An example from our own work is given, and the essay concludes with a prospectus of critical issues, questions and exhortations

Engaging with arts-based research: A story in three parts

Qualitative psychology researchers of today face numerous practical, ethical, political and theoretical challenges. We have often asked ourselves how we might respond to these multiple and complex challenges. On our evolving research journeys, we have found that arts-based methodologies offer one effective response. We explore here our experiences of doing arts-based research in psychological contexts, by sharing and reflecting on three short stories. The stories illustrate how each arts-based project has required of us three distinct waves of engagement: interdependent engagement with people and place, aesthetic engagement with sense making processes, and emotional engagement with – and of – audiences. We use the story form to evoke each wave of engagement because it allows us to communicate the qualities of that engagement without finalising, foreclosing or restricting the variety of ways arts-based research might be conducted

27S THYROID IODOPROTEIN. ISOLATION AND PROPERTIES.

thyroglobulin prepared by salting-out methods, of an ultracentrifugal component sedimenting faster than thyroglobulin (i.e. more than 198) has been known for some years (1, 2). Even though not proven, it has been suggested that this component is an iodoprotein (3). It was postulated to be “an aggregated or otherwise altered form of thyroglobulin itself” (4) or an artifact produced during the preparation of thyroglobulin (5). According to Ui and Tarutani (6), however, the so-called F (fast) component is not an artifact and might play a physiologically important role in the thyroid gland. Actually, the nature and significance of the faster sedimenting thyroidal component was unknown, since all prior attempts to isolate this protein had been unsuccessful (3). The purification of the faster sedimenting thyroidal protein has now been achieved by means of two techniques recently used (7) for the preparation of highly purified thyroglobulin: filtration through granulated agar gel and ultracentrifugation in a linear density gradient. Both techniques were designed to isolate thyroid proteins with discrete size and shape characteristics. The purification as well as some molecular and chemical properties of this newly isolated protein are reported in this paper